Community, Fire Crew Contain School Blaze
School teacher says classes would resume as normal today despite damage to dormitory building.
Quick action by members of the community and National Fire Authority personnel helped contain a fire from destroying a nearby mosque at the Islamic Institute in Sabeto yesterday.
Teachers from the institute thanked members of the community for their quick action to pull out machines and save white goods from the building.
Two fire trucks from the Nadi Fire Station were at the scene to douse the fire, with water carting trucks delivering water also.
A teacher at the institute, Shofeed Ali, said classes would resume as normal today despite damage to dormitory building.
He was at the school compound when the incident occured.
“I went to pick up my child from the primary school and on my return I saw the flames coming out of the dormitory building,” Mr Ali said.
“The institute just opened for classes today (yesterday) with 10 to 12 students, but they all managed to escape.
“Members of the community and the NFA also came to the rescue.”
He added classes would not be interrupted despite the incident completely destroying the two-storey dormitory building.
“For the time being we will do a temporary dormitory for them, maybe we will join all the classes in one,” the teacher said.
A statement obtained from Police said: “The Islamic Institute School in Sabeto caught fire and flames were spreading to the Mosque, but the quick action by the authorities managed to control the blaze from spreading.
“Police were at the fire scene to continue their investigations.”
Meanwhile, the Fiji Muslim League executive members were on site to assess the damage. Edited by Percy Kean
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