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Police report: At least 15 students dead in the Utumishi school fire tragedy

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Photo credit: PURITY KINUTHIA / MTAA WANGU

By  PURITY KINUTHIA

Correspondent

Mtaa Wangu

At least 15 students are feared dead following a devastating fire outbreak at Utumishi Girls’ Senior Secondary School in Gilgil, Nakuru, on Thursday morning.

According to a police report filed at Gilgil Police Station at 4:30am, be incident was reported by the school principal, Joycelene Muraguri, after flames engulfed one of the school dormitories.

Gilgil Sub-County Police Commander (SCPC) Winstone Mwakio accompanied by officers from Gilgil Police Station and detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), rushed to the scene and found the dormitory named Meline Waithera Block already consumed by fire.

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The dormitory reportedly housed about 220 students drawn from Grade 10, Form Three, and Four classes at the time of the incident.

Emergency response teams from various agencies joined efforts to contain the inferno. 

Fire brigades from Naivasha and the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF), together with water bowsers and personnel from the Administration Police Service Training Unit (ASTU), Kenya Forest Service (KFS), and the National Youth Service (NYS), managed to put out the fire after a coordinated rescue operation.

The report noted that the number of fatalities is estimated at around 15, although authorities are yet to release an official confirmed death toll

" Several other students sustained injuries of varying degrees and were rushed to Gilgil Sub-County Hospital and St Mark’s Hospital for treatment, where they were reported to be in stable condition," part of the report reads.

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Photo credit: PURITY KINUTHIA/MTAA WANGU

The fire also caused extensive destruction of property of unknown value within the dormitory block.

Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) officers from Nakuru documented and processed the scene as investigations into the cause of the fire commenced.

Authorities said the cause of the blaze remains unknown, with detectives from DCI Gilgil leading the investigations.

Police indicated that more details will be released as investigations continue.