BULAWAYO – Pupils and some teachers at Mbuyazwe High School in Umguza district, just outside Bulawayo, “lost everything” after a fire gutted their hostel on Wednesday morning.
The alarm was raised at around 7AM after smoke was seen bellowing out of the girls’ hostel and the Bulawayo Fire Brigade raced to the scene but nothing could be saved.
The cause of the fire, the fifth reported around the country inside seven days, is under investigation.
Without uniforms, food and other learning materials destroyed by the inferno, the school’s headmaster says they have no option but to send the children home.
“This has hit hard on the children as most of them are coming from poor families because ours is a low-cost boarding school. They lost everything in the fire except for the uniforms they were putting on,” said Gordin Sithole.
This was the girls' hostel at Mbuyazwe High School in Ward 8, Umguza District, along Bulawayo-Tsholotsho road today. The Bulawayo Fire Brigade responded but they could not save the pupils' possessions pic.twitter.com/SVU3apc1DA
— ZimLive (@zimlive) November 21, 2018
The pupils were transported home to enable parents who can afford to buy them new learning materials. Sithole hopes they can return by Sunday, with discussions already opened with Mbuyazwe Primary School to temporarily house the girls there.
Sithole appealed to well-wishers to move in quickly and rescue the situation.
The Fire Brigade said it had not yet established the cause of the fire.
