A total of 421 students and 25 teachers were displaced after a fire destroyed the St George’s High School at 7 Company Path between North Road and Church Streets, Georgetown, on Wednesday.
A fire report was made to the Police at 13:15hrs and the scene was visited at around 13:20hrs by the Commander Regional Division 4 ‘A’ Assistant Commissioner Khali Pareshram and a party of Police ranks.
Also present at the fire scene were the Minister of Home Affairs. Robeson Benn, Minister of Education Priya Manickchand and other officials.
Enquiries have so far disclosed that the St. George’s High School building was a two-storey wooden and concrete structure measuring approximately 60 feet in width by 120 feet in length.
Sixty-one-year-old Juliet Mattis, a retired teacher on contract with the said school, said that she reported for duty at around 10:00 hrs, and while in the process of teaching reading lessons to six students in the lower flat of the building, she was alerted by a 33-year-old janitorial staff that the building was on fire.
Mattis immediately instructed the students to evacuate the building along with the cleaner and a 21-year-old teacher.
The Fire Service was summoned, and Fire Chief Gregory Wickham and other ranks arrived with five water tenders and immediately went into action. The entire upper flat and the interior of the lower flat of the school were destroyed.
Statements were taken and enquiries are continuing. No injury was reported.
