Classes at the University of Guyana Turkeyen Campus are expected to resume in full on Wednesday following an early evening fire on Tuesday at the Natural Sciences Department.
Two buildings were gutted by the fire but quick response by the fire service contained the blaze as students were evacuated and classes were suspended.
It is unclear what may have triggered the blaze which was spotted just before 7:00pm, but students said it appeared to have started in a storage area for chemicals in one of the buildings.
The fire gutted that section of the building and also gutted another building which housed offices for lecturers. Some of the lecturers lost their personal belongings and exam papers in the blaze.
University Vice Chancellor Jacob Opadeyi, who was at the scene, commended the Guyana Fire Service for doing a “fantastic job” at containing the blaze, but he complained bitterly about the fire hydrants at the campus all being in a not working state.
“The fire hydrants are not working and we are lucky to have a water pump close to here and that is where the fire service was able to get water to operate their machine”, Opadeyi said.
The Vice Chancellor said his priority right now is to get assistance, including counseling, to be made available to the lecturers who would have lost their personal belongings in the blaze.
He however, noted that classes will resume as normal on Wednesday and the fire will not affect exams since the area where the fire took place is not where students would sit their exams and lecturers would have back up questions to set new papers.
The Guyana Fire Service has launched a full investigation into the incident and has already questioned some students and staffers who were on site at the time. Some students reported hearing a small explosion coming from the chemical storage facility moments before the fire was spotted.
The probe continues.
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