A survivor of the tragic fire at Endarasha Academy has shared a chilling account of the night when 21 students tragically lost their lives in the dormitory blaze.
Speaking to Citizen TV, the mother of one of the survivors recounted her son’s harrowing experience. According to her, her son was abruptly awakened when another pupil, who was sleeping on the top bunk of a double-decker bed close to the dormitory’s entrance, noticed sparks flying from a light bulb above.
She explained, “My son told me that one of the students woke up startled after the bulb exploded, sending sparks down onto the mattress below, which quickly ignited.”
The situation escalated rapidly as the student jumped down from his bed, frantically searching for water to douse the flames but found none readily available. Within moments, the fire began to spread uncontrollably across the bed.
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“They tried to extinguish the fire, but it spread too fast for them to contain. Realizing they were losing control, they rushed to wake up the other children and alert the matron,” the mother said.
The fire had broken out near the dormitory’s main entrance, where 48 students were sleeping in 24 double-decker beds, with 12 beds lined up on each side of the room. While each student had their own sleeping space, the tightly packed wooden beds and flimsy cardboard dividers between sections only fueled the fire’s rapid spread.
The structural materials of the dormitory—primarily wood and cardboard—acted as kindling, making it nearly impossible for the trapped students to escape the quickly advancing flames. The speed at which the fire spread and the combustibility of the dorm’s materials created a life-threatening situation, leaving little room for escape.
