12th April, 2012
Another school disaster was Thursday averted as hundreds of female students of the University of Benin (UNIBEN) narrowly escaped death from an early hour inferno that gutted their three-storey hostel building.
This is coming barely three weeks after two female students of Edo State-owned Ambrose Alli University (AAU), Ekpoma, died after a well collapsed.
P.M.NEWS gathered that the fire started at about 1am from the last floor of the building and spread to other floors of the Hall II of the female hostel located inside the main campus of the university at Ugbowo.
Each of the floors of the three-storey hostel building is occupied by 200, 300 and 400 students respectively.
Although no life was lost in the inferno, several students sustained injuries while jumping from the top floors.
The injured ones were said to have been taken to the school’s health centre before they were finally transferred to an undisclosed hospital for further medical attention.
The Public Relations officer of UNIBEN, Harrison Osarenren confirmed the fire incident to P.M.NEWS no phone.
He said the fire started from a room inside the hostel, adding that the cause of the incident could be attributed to electrical fault.
He added that items in some of the affected rooms were destroyed and those that sustained burnt injuries were few and that those injured have been taken to hospital for treatment.
—Jethro Ibileke/Benin City