What happens next after the UniMak Female Hotels Fire Disaster?

Almost two decades since the 25 rooms’ female hostel was opened for residual students use at the University of Makeni (UniMak) Sylvanus Koroma Campus at Yoni in Bombali District Northern Sierra Leone, a Monday evening fire disaster rocked the facility damaging properties worth thousands of Leones as well as displacing residents of the hostels.

So what’s next at the campus’s sole female student hostels?

How did the fire start?

One of the victims, mostly affected by the Monday fire disaster is Mrs. Mary Marie Kapotho Kamara, the Hostels Matron who’s quarter was burnt down to ashes.

She told AWE-Media Sierra Leone that she was just arriving at the hostels by 6:00 PM from buying some cooking items from Makeni city and was busy preparing food when she heard the female students rejoicing over the coming of electricity on the evening when she ventured entering into her room and saw a flash fire.

It was past 7:00 PM at that point and I was extremely shocked and had to run outside and alert the students about the fire outbreak and they started parking out their things for safety and the male students and some members of the Yoni community came to our rescue. “We contacted the Northern Regional Fire Force Station staff in Makeni but they were unable to come to our rescue because their only fire engine was faulty. I then alerted some university staff about the fire and they came over promptly until we were able to put off the fire but my room and the room of the students next to me were all completely burnt down by the fire,” she explained.

How many student residents were destroyed by the fire and what next?

Although three rooms including the hostel’s matron room were completely burnt down, the 23 other rooms were not badly affected but some of the walls, doors and windows of those rooms as well as valuable properties of the students were damaged in the process of putting down.

Reverend Father Benjamin Humaru Sesay is the Director of Administration and Finance at UniMak in an interview with AWE-Media Sierra Leone he described the fire outbreak as “an unfortunate occurrence.” He apologized to the fire victims on behalf of the university administration that “the 63 students were residing in the facility built for 75 students accommodating three students per room were affected by the fire.” He said: “We’ve since responded to the stressful call and unfortunate occurrence.

On the night of the first outbreak, we  managed to house the affected students in the empty spaces around the campus and we have also engaged the leadership of the Bombali District Council for their newly built hostels at Yoni which were due to be handed over to us formally. These students will have to stay at the said hostels which are new and comfortable as we continue to find solutions to rebuild the damaged building.

The Administrative and Finance Director also thanked the male students and community members for helping to put out the fire and expressed regrets that the pupils lack knowledge to use fire extinguishers to put out the fire in the absence of the fire force.

When asked about what the renovation will cost the university, Father Benjamin said he could not say the total now but assured an assessment will be conducted duly because this incident for sure will cost us a lot. He updated further that, “the Fire Force Engineer have recommended that we demolish and rebuild the whole building for safety reasons and by their verbal updates after their visitation they’ve told us the fire breakout as a result of a blast that emanated from an hotplate that was plugged to the wall which overheated and exploded,” adding that they’re “still waiting to receive the final report from them to determine their next move.” What’s the affected student plea?

Hawanatu Thabeh Fofanah, a first year student studying Law at the University who was also affected by the first outbreak has on behalf of her colleagues called for the university administration to accord them some time added to the relocation so that they can make way to replace their lost course notes and assignments. Fofanah said: “My computer, some books and even my black and white dress which is required of us to wear to attend classes have all been burnt down to ashes so it’s really a trying time for us the victims of the fire disaster, we hope the university and other well-wishers come to our rescue, she pleaded.

The timely intervention and collaborative efforts paid off as no human casualty or death was reported from the outbreak of the fire at the UniMak Yoni campus hostels also attracted the attention of the Sierra Leone Police Panlap division and the division’s spokesman, Jalloh told AWE-Media Sierra Leone that they’re currently investigating the cause of the fire and promised to update the public about their findings.

Similarly, the Regional Fire Commander of the National Fire Force in the north Mr. Abdulai Gassama Bockarie said a full report and recommendations into the blaze was under way but it was not known how long it would take the University administration to implement their recommendations to prevent a recurrence in the future.

However, Mr. Bockarie told AWE-Media Sierra Leone that their fire engine in Makeni has served for 26 years and has become older and mostly gives them a tough time to manage but expressed hope that they’ll soon get a new fire engine from the newly procured ones by the government of Sierra Leone.

He concluded by encouraging the institution and other public places to put in place safety measures against possible fire outbreaks, expressing their availability to roll out fire prevention knowledge free of cost to persons or institutions interested.