17 children killed in fire at Hillside Endarasha Academy in Kenya
Nairobi: In central Kenya, a fire that tore through a primary school dormitory overnight claimed the lives of at least 17 children, according to authorities on Friday.
According to authorities, the fire at Nyeri county’s Hillside Endarasha Academy started at before midnight and spread to the children’s bedroom quarters.
There are around 800 students in the elementary school, ages five to twelve.
National police spokesman Resila Onyango told AFP, “There are 17 fatalities from this incident and there are also others who were taken to hospital with serious injuries.”
“The bodies recovered at the scene were burnt beyond recognition,” she claimed.
According to police, the victims’ ages ranged from around nine years old on average.
According to Onyango, 16 of the other people who were hurt were critically hurt and were sent to a local hospital almost after.
“More bodies are likely to be recovered once (the) scene is fully processed,” she added.
She said that while the origin of the fire is yet unclear, an inquiry has been started.
William Ruto, the president, sent his sympathies to the deceased.
“Our thoughts are with the families of the children who have lost their lives in the fire tragedy,” he stated in a post on X.
“This is devastating news.”
He claimed that those in charge would be “held to account” and that he has given the go-ahead for authorities to “thoroughly investigate this horrific incident.”
The institution is situated in Nyeri county, some 170 kilometers (100 miles) north of Nairobi, the capital.
According to the Kenyan Red Cross, they were helping a multi-agency reaction team on the ground.
“Providing psychosocial support services to the pupils, teachers, and affected families” was the statement made in a post on X.
Horrible Fires
Kenya and other East African countries have had a large number of school fires.
A girls’ high school fire in Nairobi’s Kibera neighborhood claimed the lives of nine pupils in 2016.
At Kenya’s southern Machakos district’s Kyanguli Mixed Secondary School David Mutiso, 67 students perished in an arson assault on their dormitory in 2001.
The headmaster and deputy of the school were found guilty of carelessness, while two students were charged with the murder.
In 1994, a fire at Tanzania’s Shauritanga Secondary School for Girls, located in the northern Kilimanjaro area, left forty students burnt alive and 47 wounded.
