Schoolchildren’s safety: 22 children, teacher injured in classroom fire

Fire apparently caused by gas leak, attempted murder case registered against school administration.

LAHORE:

Twenty-two primary school children and their teacher received burn injuries when a fire broke out in the classroom at a private school in Shahdara Town on Thursday.

Two of the children were in intensive care with third-degree burns of up to 25 per cent, but doctors said that they were hopeful that they would survive. Most of the victims suffered burns on their hands and faces.

The fire began with a small explosion at around 8.50am during an Islamiyat lesson. “I was writing on the black board when it happened and flames engulfed the whole classroom in no time,” said Maryam Mureed, the young teacher, who was being hailed for her bravery in protecting her students, aged between six and eight.

The teacher said that she and her students had smelt gas when they came to the classroom on the first floor in the morning. “I opened the door and told the ayah to inform the administration about the gas leak,” she said.

Some of the children told The Express Tribune that they had seen the school chowkidar lighting a match just outside the classroom prior to the explosion, which slammed the door shut. “I got the children to move behind me and tried to open the door, but it was jammed shut,” said Mureed. “Then everyone started screaming.”

Other school staff rushed to the classroom and forced the door open from the outside, allowing the trapped children and the teacher to escape. Firefighters rushed to the scene and put out the fire. The injured were taken to Mayo Hospital in ambulances and private vehicles. Parents and relatives of the children congregated at the hospital’s burn unit, waiting for news about the children.



Teacher hailed, school admin slammed

As news of the fire spread through the neighbourhood, the parents of students began gathering at the scene, desperate for information. Several parents hailed the teacher, Mureed, saying she had put her own life at risk trying to shield the children from the flames, suffering burns to her hands and face in the process.

Mureed said she did not know how the fire began, but her main concern was the children. Speaking to this correspondent, she repeatedly asked about the health of her students. She said she was sad that their schoolbags, books, paintings and poems had been destroyed in the fire.

Khawar Ali, one of Mureed’s four siblings, accused the school administration of criminal negligence. “Why didn’t they check the school building before the start of classes?” he asked. Salman, Arshad and Tanveer, the fathers of three injured children, said that this was the only primary school in the area.

“We have to send our children here as it’s close by, but that’s the only reason,” said one father.

They added that the government also had a responsibility to examine facilities offered by private schools.

Shahdara Town SHO Asif Zulfiqar said that the police had registered a case against the three members of the school management on the complaint of the city district fire officer under Sections 324 (attempted murder), 284 (negligent conduct with respect to a poisonous substance) and 285 (negligent conduct with respect to a fire or combustible material) of the Pakistan Penal Code. No arrests have been made.

Various politicians and government officials visited the injured schoolchildren in the hospital, including Khawaja Salman Rafique, the chief minister’s special assistant on health, Education Minister Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman and DCO Noorul Amin Mengal. They vowed action against the school and ordered it to be closed.

PPP leaders Shaukat Basra and Zulfiqar Gondal also visited the children at Mayo Hospital. They told reporters that the PPP would submit a private schools bill in the Punjab Assembly soon.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 22^nd, 2013.