RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Michael Dowlath says in­ves­ti­ga­tions are on­go­ing in­to the cause of a fire at Cara­pichaima West Sec­ondary School, even as al­le­ga­tions have sur­faced that Form Five stu­dents may have been in­volved.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, Dr Dowlath said the mat­ter is un­der ac­tive in­ves­ti­ga­tion and there is no ev­i­dence as yet about stu­dent in­volve­ment. He said the in­ci­dent oc­curred on Mon­day when smoke was first de­tect­ed at ap­prox­i­mate­ly 1.50 pm on the top floor of the Form Five build­ing block.

Emer­gency pro­to­cols were im­me­di­ate­ly ac­ti­vat­ed, and by 1.55 pm, all stu­dents and staff had been safe­ly evac­u­at­ed to a des­ig­nat­ed muster point. Dr Dowlath said at the time of the in­ci­dent, there were 42 teach­ers and 103 stu­dents on the com­pound. No in­juries or fa­tal­i­ties were re­port­ed, al­though am­bu­lance ser­vices re­mained on stand­by as a pre­cau­tion­ary mea­sure.

Dowlath said in­ves­ti­ga­tions are be­ing con­duct­ed by both the Trinidad and To­ba­go Fire Ser­vice and the po­lice to de­ter­mine the cause of the blaze. He not­ed that while al­le­ga­tions have emerged sug­gest­ing pos­si­ble stu­dent in­volve­ment, no con­clu­sions have yet been reached.

“The mat­ter is un­der ac­tive in­ves­ti­ga­tion, and we will al­low the rel­e­vant au­thor­i­ties to com­plete their work be­fore any de­ter­mi­na­tions are made,” the min­is­ter stat­ed.

The min­istry al­so con­firmed that Form Five stu­dents had al­ready com­plet­ed their Caribbean Sec­ondary Ed­u­ca­tion Cer­tifi­cate (CSEC) mock ex­am­i­na­tions pri­or to the in­ci­dent.

In re­sponse to the fire, the school has been closed with im­me­di­ate ef­fect, de­spite the aca­d­e­m­ic term orig­i­nal­ly be­ing sched­uled to end on March 27. Of­fi­cials say this de­ci­sion was tak­en to fa­cil­i­tate safe­ty as­sess­ments and re­me­di­al works. Teams from the Ed­u­ca­tion Fa­cil­i­ties Plan­ning and Pro­cure­ment Di­vi­sion, along with the Min­istry’s Health, Safe­ty and Se­cu­ri­ty Unit, are col­lab­o­rat­ing with emer­gency re­spon­ders to as­sess dam­age and car­ry out nec­es­sary re­pairs. Dowlath ex­pressed con­fi­dence that the school would be ready to re­open in time for the start of Aca­d­e­m­ic Term Three on April 13.

He added that sup­port ser­vices are be­ing made avail­able to af­fect­ed stu­dents and fam­i­lies.

“The Stu­dent Sup­port Ser­vices Di­vi­sion stands ready to as­sist any stu­dent or par­ent who may re­quire guid­ance or coun­selling dur­ing this pe­ri­od,” he said.

He said the min­istry is ex­pect­ed to pro­vide fur­ther up­dates as in­ves­ti­ga­tions progress. Mean­while, the pres­i­dent of the T&T Uni­fied Teach­ers As­so­ci­a­tion, Bevin Crys­tal Ashe, said he did not know the cause of the blaze as the mat­ter was un­der ac­tive in­ves­ti­ga­tion. A par­ent who re­quest­ed anonymi­ty said the school does not have an ac­tive PTA. She said at least three stu­dents have been asked to give state­ments about the blaze.