MONROVIA, Montserrado – The Liberia National Fire Service has released its report into the September 17 fire incident that killed 27 people at a religious school in Paynesville.

According to the Liberia National Police, the victims included 26 young Muslims scholars of a Quranic boarding school in Bassa Town. They and their teacher were killed in a fire that gutted the school at night while they were asleep. Only two children were reported as survivors of the incident.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, the director of the Liberia National Fire Service, Alex Dickson, said the cause of the incident was found to be “electrical short.”

While there were previous reports that the boarding school was not connected to any electric power grid, Dickson said the building had power on the night of the fire. He said the power source was a 30 kva generator operated by an individual identified as Fredrick Brown.

At 1:02 a.m. on the night of the incident, Dickson said his team arrived in Bassa Town to respond to a call received 12:37 a.m. from the Redlight Police depot.

According to him, the fire had started at the front of the building in the roof of the first room. He said a motorcycle was parked in the corridor of the house with gasoline in it.

According to him, the school was being housed in a structure built in 1999 with sub-standard materials. He said 31 persons were in the building during the outbreak, but that four persons survived the incident.

He further explained that four students initially noticed the fire, which prompted them to run out of the building through the entrance, while the others ran to call their teacher.

“The others ran to the last room at the back, where there is no exit, unaware that smoke can take the life of a person in 10 minutes and fire can regenerate in 10 mins,” he said.

“The two that went to inform their teacher ran through the fire, which is why they got badly burned by the fire.”

He said the final report is currently before the minister of justice for further action.

A Muslim group under the banner of the Coalition of Islamic Schools and Intellectual Forums has disputed the report and called for an investigation.

A student of the Africa Islamic School, Massa Kamara, who spoke on behalf of the group, dismissed reports that the building which hosted the school was connected to any electricity grid on the night the fire occurred.

Kamara said they have been informed during a fact-finding investigation that the land the Quranic school was being hosted on has been surrounded by ownership disputes. Prior to the incident, she said there had been reports of other attempts to set the school ablaze. These revelations, according to her, have made them believe that people set the school on fire for malicious reasons.

She gave a previous account of the Liberia National Police that the fire was caused by electric short and the subsequent demolition of the structure gave members of the group even more reasons to believe that there was a foul play in the process.

“Imagine destroying the crime scene without conducting a full forensic investigation into the matter. It is tantamount to tampering with,” she said.

The group is meanwhile requesting an independent investigation to be conducted into what it says is the actual cause of the incident.

“We are asking the leadership to look into this incident with keen attention as all lives matter to a responsible government,” she said.

“If we don’t get accurate outcome of the investigation, we can assure you that there will be a huge mass protests across the length and breadth of the nation.”

Featured photo by Mafanta Kromah