By Philip Tengzu, GNA
Wechiau, (UW/R), March 11, GNA – A 1,500-seater capacity multi-purpose hall, known as the “Great Pink Hall” of the Lassia-Tuolu Senior High School at Lassia in the Wa West District has been razed by fire.
The fire, which occurred at about 1:00 am on Sunday, March 10, 2024, destroyed food, cooking utensils and furniture.
No casualty was recorded.
The Wa District Directorate of the Ghana Education Service and other stakeholders have consequently closed down the school as temporary steps are being taken for academic work to resume.
Mr Amatus D. Tug-uu, the Wa West District Director of Education, confirmed this to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview at Wechiau, on Monday.
He said measures are being put in place for the third-year students to go through their registration, which started today, Monday, March 11, 2024.
At the time of the incident, the student population on campus was 833 out of 1,215 because the second-year students were on vacation.
He lamented: “The hall is a multi-purpose Hall. That is what we use for Basic Education Certificate Examination, workshops, church service, dining, assembly, and many other things, so once the hall is down like this it means the school is down.
“In fact, I am bleeding inside with the happenings.”
He appealed to stakeholders and the public to assist the school put up a temporary kitchen and a store to enable the cooks prepare food for the students when they return.
Some of the items destroyed included 900 student desks, 500 dining tables and benches, ten student mattresses, a public address system and musical instruments.
Others were: 23 cooking pots of different sizes; five iron pots (size 30); a deep freezer and a stabilizer and 530 service and soup pans and lids.
The food items that were also destroyed by the fire included: 24 bags of maize; two bags of dried cassava (konkonte); 15 cartons of mackerel; 24 gallons of vegetable oil; a gallon of palm oil and a bag each of dried okra and salt, among others.
He encouraged the students and their parents and guardians to exercise restraint while steps were taken to restore full academic work.
GNA