BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – QUICK response by the Fire and Rescue Services prevented flames from engulfing the home economics laboratory of the Basseterre High School (BHS) on Saturday evening (June 5).
SKNVibes spoke to BHS Guidance Counsellor Ron Dublin-Collins, who was on the premises at the time of the fire and witnessed firemen’s successful efforts to stop the blaze.
He said the Teachers’ Union had just concluded a meeting in his office on BHS grounds when they heard persons shouting about a fire at the school.
“We were leaving at around 6:50 p.m. when we smelled smoke and saw there was a fire in the eastern home economics lab. It appears that a neighbour on East Park Range spotted the fire and called the fire station, because a fire truck was arriving,” said Dublin-Collins.
Once on the scene, firemen forced open the door of the laboratory and extinguished the flames. No one was in the laboratory at that time, but some curtains, a couch and a chair were burned as a result.
BHS Principal Urlene Bloice-Roberts confirmed that no one was injured and that property damage was minimal, but declined to comment about the cause of the fire.
She however praised the fire department for its quick response and stressed that the situation would have been much worse without their timely assistance.
When contacted, Fire Sub-Station Officer Clarence Herdrickson told SKNVibes that the cause of the fire was unknown, but investigations revealed that it was not started by anything electrical.
According to Dublin-Collins, this is the third consecutive year fire has been set in the eastern home economics laboratory. He told SKNVibes that firemen on the scene uncovered a burning object that was thrown through the building’s window and which was probably the cause of the fire.
“It seems like almost every year now there has been a fire in that area. We think they were all deliberately set by disgruntled students. They may be trying to delay their exams or cause some other mischief, because it always occurs around this time.”
Police Sergeant Edward Drew confirmed a report had been made at the Basseterre Police Station on Saturday, but said he was not at liberty to disclose salient information on the incident.
He however noted that investigations into the cause and culprit(s) of the fire were ongoing.
