Hill School Girls closed indefinitely after dormitory fire

More than 500 students at The Hill School Girls in Eldoret have been sent home after a dawn fire destroyed a major dormitory and belongings of unknown value in an incident that left the school counting heavy losses.

The fire broke out at about 4.30am on Tuesday in one of the school’s main residential blocks, shortly after the students had left for early morning preps.

No casualties or injuries were reported.

The timing of the fire proved crucial. The school’s normal routine requires students to report for morning preps at 5am, but on Tuesday they had gone to their classrooms at about 4.30am.

“We are grateful to God that no student was injured in the incident, as they had all settled in their classrooms for morning preps when the fire broke out,” said Dr Philemon Bureti, the chairman of the School Board of Management.

The fire, however, caused extensive destruction, reducing the entire dormitory block to ashes and leaving part of the roof collapsed.

Students housed in the affected dormitory are believed to have lost their personal belongings, including mattresses, uniforms and learning materials.

“Ordinarily our students go for morning preps at 5am, but we are lucky that on this day all of them went to preps at 4.30am,” Dr Bureti said.

The cause of the fire remains unknown, with police and Directorate of Criminal Investigations officers investigating the incident.

Firefighting engines and emergency response teams from Uasin Gishu County, neighbouring Nandi County and Kenya Power’s disaster control crews responded to the scene as efforts were made to contain the blaze and salvage what could be recovered.

“The response from emergency services was swift, but the fire spread very fast due to the materials inside,” Dr Bureti said.

The destruction has left the school facing the immediate challenge of accommodating students from the affected dormitory, with national examinations also approaching.

Dr Bureti said the management had resolved to send the students home temporarily because of anxiety among the learners and the lack of adequate space to accommodate those affected.

He said the school planned to improvise makeshift dormitories for the affected students as it works on repairing the destroyed infrastructure.

“We have resolved to close the school indefinitely to allow the police and officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations to conduct thorough investigations, and to give us time to reconstruct the affected infrastructure,” he added.

Uasin Gishu County police commander Wilberforce Sichirani confirmed that multi-agency teams were assessing the scene to establish the exact cause of the fire.

“Parents have been advised to pick up their children as the administration formulates a clear plan for resuming learning while detectives continue with investigations,” said Mr Sichirani.

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