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Sunday, February 23, 2025

AC catches fire at San Fernando Central School

by

Radhica De Silva
499 days ago
20231012
Students of San Fernando Central Secondary School waiting for their parents outside the school compound, after being dismissed early because of a fire caused by a faulty air-conditioning unit, on Wednesday 11 October 2023.

Students of San Fernando Central Secondary School waiting for their parents outside the school compound, after being dismissed early because of a fire caused by a faulty air-conditioning unit, on Wednesday 11 October 2023.

Ivan Toolsie

 

Noth­ing ma­jor was dam­aged when a fire broke out at the San Fer­nan­do Cen­tral Sec­ondary School on Wednes­day morn­ing, which trig­gered ear­ly dis­missal of class­es.

This was con­firmed by Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly. Re­spond­ing to the fire, the Min­is­ter said: "Noth­ing ma­jor was dam­aged. The is­sue was con­tained very quick­ly and ef­fec­tive­ly."

Fire­fight­ers, per­son­nel from the T&TEC and po­lice re­spond­ed prompt­ly to the fire which broke out in a Form Five class­room.

A source at the school said that short­ly af­ter 10 am, a loud ex­plo­sion was heard and an air con­di­tion­ing unit start­ed to smoke. The fire was quick­ly con­tained. Un­con­firmed re­ports from par­ents were that sim­i­lar elec­tri­cal mal­func­tions oc­curred in the li­brary and the prin­ci­pal's of­fice. 

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, a par­ent who re­quest­ed anonymi­ty said af­ter the air con­di­tion­ing unit blew, the staff and safe­ty of­fi­cers quick­ly evac­u­at­ed every­one to the muster point.

"They told us to line up on the field, get our bags and line up. I called my mom­my and granny, aun­ty and cousin," one stu­dent said.

Af­ter the school was giv­en clear­ance, the stu­dents were dis­missed.

How­ev­er, some par­ents were not pleased, say­ing all the stu­dents should have been kept at the muster point un­til their par­ents ar­rived to col­lect them.

"The chil­dren are all over as they wait for their par­ents. This is not right. The chil­dren should not be sent out of the school," the par­ent said.

Bren­ton Ram­bal­ly, an­oth­er par­ent said he came to pick up his two chil­dren from Forms Four and Five but was hap­py no one got hurt.

An­oth­er par­ent Rakesh Goolcha­ran said he was hap­py with the way the mat­ter was han­dled. 

"The school took all the pre­cau­tions and evac­u­at­ed the stu­dents and kept them at the muster point un­til it was clear for them to be dis­missed," Goolcha­ran said. 


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