Swardikiyah Islamic religious school, on 48th Street, Botathaung
Township, was on fire this morning at 2:45 am, and 13 schoolchildren
were burnt alive. The school is located at No.181, 48th Street
(Upper Block), Botathaung,and it is next to a mosque.Over a hundred
students from all over the country study and memorize
the Holy Qur’an
there. Now, as the school is temporarily close, there were about 70
students only, and when the fire broke out, 55 of them could escape from
fire, but unfortunately, 13 of them, who were under thirteen-year-old
children, were burnt alive in fire.
The fire started around
2:45 and could be put out by 3:30. It was reported that the fire was
claimed to be arson. It started first from the shoe-cabinet. When the
students ran out on knowing the fire had broken out, the slipped on the
staircase as it was wet with the petroleum oil, and they could sense the
smell of it. The school was a two-storey building, and it was known
that only inside the building was on fire.
M-Media could
interview two 15-year-old students who had escaped from the burning:
“Our school is two-
storeyed. We didn’t know that it was on fire at
first. When we realized that the fire had spread.We ran down
the
staircase, and we slipped on the oil spilled on the floor. There are
about 70 students in our school for the time being. Now (at the time of
the interview) 51 students have escaped.
The school didn’t store any
flammables like gasoline or petroleum. The fire started from the shoe
cabinet.
Ourshirts still smellthegasoline now.”“I am now at
the burnt place. Fire didn’t catch the mosque, it was only inside the
school. Three fire engines got here and put out fire. Children who were
burnt were found together at one place. To my surprise, one of them
didn’t catch fire at all but died, and one more thing, as they all were
supposed to be asleep in their bed, I cannot understand why they all
were burnt to death at one place together.
Now, the reason of the fire
was told to be wire-shock. Indeed, it cannot be. I talked to people who
live in that street, and they told me they heard a loud banging sound
two hours before, but they didn’t pay attention to where it came from.
Later, they said they saw fire from the school, for that at first they
thought it was only candlelight, and only sooner they learnt the school
was on fire. Now the dead bodies have been taken to the hospital, and
those whohad escaped were put in a camp. I am sure it was not
wire-shock, it was definitely arson”, said a witness
from the fire-spot
to M-Media.
M-Media
Thuta Photo- Myanmar Muslim Net
Rangonnewsdaily
RND:2.4.2013
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