Chilonga mission school of nursing dormitory gutted
By Staff Reporter
Chilonga Mission school of Nursing male dormitory in Mpika has caught fire and burnt articles to ashes.
Confirming the development to NewsdayZambia.com this morning Muchinga Province Police Commissioner Joel Njase said the incident happened yesterday morning.
He explained that the fire was started when students, Richard Silavwe and his colleague Emmanuel Mwange placed heating electric element to a socket in their room number to warm water for bathing.
Njase said the duo only manage to warm two first buckets but as they were trying to warm the third bucket, power went off at 06:00 hrs due to load shedding.
Njase said the students forgot to switch off the heating element when they were leaving the dormitories for class around 7:30hrs.
He explained that the college authorities were alerted about a fire in one of the hostels by a worker, Gerald Chanda around 10:45, at which time it had engulfed the larger part of the block.
“ Police visited the scene of fire incident and found one room at student hostel had been burnt and all articles inside burnt to ashes. The whole ceiling board to the room and all bunker beds have been gutted to ashes,” he explained.
“ The fire was quenched by workers of Chilonga Mission, students and community as first aid, before police officers and Fire Brigade of Mpika could arrive at the scene of crime. The value of gutted articles is not yet known and Inquiry file has been opened,” said Njase.
