Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Oct 3: Hundreds of children had a narrow escape this morning in a major fire at a school in posh Gogji Bagh area of Srinagar.
Fire broke out in Oasis Public High School at Gogji Bagh here at around 10:15 a m when some of the children were taking exams and others were busy in their studies.
“Our students had hardly stood in the examination when the incident happened, we didn’t understood how it spread within minutes,” one of the teachers said.
The teacher said toddlers were sitting in the particular building when it was flames and they worked hard to rescue all the children to safety and shifted them to a local house. “We didn’t bother for anything except the safety of our children; we threw everything out of the building whatever came in front of us including books and bags,” the teacher said.
Authorities rushed more than eight fire-tenders to the spot to douse the flames. The fire fighters, who brought fire under control, said the reason of fire could have been leakage of an LPG. “The way fire spread fast in the building indicates that it was gas leakage in the kitchen and almost 20-25 gas cylinders were stored in the same building, in which two cylinders burst,” one of the fire serviceman said.
The firemen said that if there would have been a delay, all the cylinders would have burst and it would have created heavoc. “Our timely rescue averted a major tragedy today,” he said. “Three firemen were injured while controlling fire and rescuing small children from the building”, he added.
Eyewitness said the school administration had constructed a wooden building which was gutted today and its ground flood was used as a kitchen for school children, while its first-floor was used as class room for toddlers.
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