Fire razes down dormitory in Maranda High School

By Mangoa Mosota

A fire gutted down a dormitory in Maranda High School, Siaya County destroying property of over 200 students.

The fire completely razed Boaz Owino dormitory that houses 283 Form Four students, with nothing to be salvaged.

However, no injuries have been reported as the students were in evening studies, during the incident that occurred at around 8pm on Sunday.

The fire is reported to have been caused by an electric fault. A teacher at the school said the roof of the dormitory fell due the inferno. “Villagers, students and teachers are trying to put off the fire,” said the teacher.

Bondo acting OCPD Paul Kiare said the fire was massive, but they were working to stop it.

“We are trying to put out it out. I will you give you details later,” Mr Kiare told The Standard.

By 10.30 pm some firefighters were on site, but the Kisumu Municipal firefighters were on the way to the institution. Bondo is over 60 kilometres from Kisumu..

The affected dormitory is named after its current principal, and has seen it register tremendous results in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) results, in the past four years.

The institution hit headlines in late February, after it a garnered performance index of 11.057 points, up from 10.558 in 2010. It emerged the fourth nationally in the 2010 examination, but in 2011 it was the giant of KCSE.

Late last month (August), eight girls died after a dormitory caught fire at St Theresa’s Asumbi Girls Boarding Primary in Homa Bay County. The girls died as they screamed for help as the inferno raged. But they would not escape as the door of the hostel was reportedly locked from outside.