We survived fierce dorm fire, only to be abandoned by our minders

Sammy Nandwa, form one, one of the six boys who were involved in a fire incident at Tala High School on July 22, 2014, with his mother Alice Nandwa at their home in Kitengela on August 31, 2104. FILE PHOTO | BILLY MUTAI | NATION MEDIA GROUP  

 On the evening of 21 July this year, 14-year-old Samuel Nandwa picked up his plate and headed for the small dining hall at Tala High School in Kangundo. There, he tucked in a sizeable serving of rice and beans, washed his plate, and dashed off for a Christian Union meeting organised by fellow students. As happens in hundreds of other such meetings, the patrons discussed membership, student discipline, and how to remain in the good books of Jesus Christ before calling it a day at around 10pm. Nandwa, a Form One student, had thought it wise to join the CU for two major reasons: first, the fellowship gave him a chance to practise his Christian beliefs and, second, it afforded him an opportunity to forge new relationships beyond the nonchalance of student interactions.

And so, the meeting over, he went back to his dormitory, climbed — like most Form Ones in this country reluctantly do — to the top bed of the double-deck unit he had been assigned, where he spent a few minutes ruminating over his student life before finally dozing off. He had not been asleep for long, however, when a sharp, eerie cry for help rent the air. Half-awake, he rose grudgingly to see what was happening. What was happening was that the dormitory was ablaze and the suffocating fumes from mattresses, bedding, plastics, and whatever it was that the fire was licking were quickly spreading inside. Students were jumping from their beds and scampering for safety while others, like Thomson’s gazelles caught in the bright glare of headlights in the Tsavo, their nerves and muscles tensed, remained transfixed in the blazing dormitory as death beckoned.

JAMMED EXIT

Nandwa jumped from his bed and ran into the small corridor separating the rows of beds in the dormitory.  His adrenalin now taking control, he jumped over flames and fallen students, angling for the door. The shrieking, however, had come too late and already half of the dormitory was on fire. Terrified students had jammed the small exit, screaming and elbowing each other. Around them, the fire raged, its tongues rising to the roof and licking anything in its way. If there is hell, Nandwa reasoned, it must look and feel like this. Probably because of the oxygen outside, the fire seemed to be wilder just outside the door and so to escape, the students had to dash through the flames. That was what was creating the madness at the door.

His back already seriously burnt, Nandwa took a deep breath and, like a rugby player crushing through opposition, charged. He was doing about 40 kilometres per hour when he bolted out of the door, turning backwards to save his face from the fire.It worked, but not without damage. Even though the decision to shield his face from the flames saved him facial injuries, his back and legs paid the price, the latter receiving almost 30-degree burns. And because he was facing backwards, he did not see the burning mattress just outside the dormitory, and so he stumbled and fell.

Tala High School dormitory where a form one boy was burnt to death leaving 14 injured in what police suspect to have been caused by arson, on July 22, 2014. FILE PHOTO | BILLY MUTAI | NATION MEDIA GROUP

UNCONSCIOUS
 And then everything around him went blank. And quiet. He had fainted. It would take the bravery of his schoolmates to carry him to safety. His friend, Warren Mboya, 17, had joined Tala High just a few days earlier after transferring from a day school. He had spent the evening playing volleyball and was completely spent by the time he climbed into his bed for the night at around 10.30pm. He did not hear the initial commotion, nor the eerie cries that woke Nandwa up. Instead, it was the haunting calls of “is anyone left inside?” and the nauseating, choking smell of burning mattresses that woke him up.His mosquito net was already afire and the dormitory almost emptied of students by the time he realised that something was amiss. To get out of this fiery tomb, however, he had to break free of the nylon net, which was sizzling in the heat of its own fire. 

Mboya closed his eyes and grabbed one end of the burning net. The red-hot nylon tore through his skin, numbing his nerves as it sunk into his flesh. Free from the net but still facing great danger, he slipped into his flip-flops and rushed towards the door. “But, to my horror, the fire seemed more ferocious at the door than inside the dormitory,” he remembers. “I ran back inside and tried to jump through the window, but the metal grills held me back. I decided that I would not be entombed inside the dorm and rushed out, headfirst, through the flames.”

35-DEGREE BURNS 

He had made a mistake, though. The plastic slippers he had worn had caught fire and in the heat of the moment, he had not realised that they were searing the soles of his feet. As a result, Mboya received 35-degree burns on his face and lower body and still walks with a limp. “I was still conscious when I got outside to safety, but I panicked when I realised that my flip-flops were on fire. I reached down to free my toes, but the sight of my hands stopped me. My left hand was laced with welts and black, scary blisters. My right hand was worse; it had some flesh hanging at the base of my fingers. I had gone to bed in my ebony skin and now it was sickly pink.”By the time of this interview, Mboya had been through two surgeries on his hands to relieve the pressure following an infection. 

He could not walk properly following the injuries inflicted by the burning slippers, but he was optimistic that he would heal soon and begin his physiotherapy sessions so that he could learn again how to hold a pen. “I want to get back to my biology class,” he said, “because I still hope to become a surgeon.”

STUDY HOURS

Samuel Nandwa and Warren John Mboya had expected that, like other boys their age, they would be waking up at four in the morning to prepare for yet another day in school at this time of the year.

John Warren Mboya, 17, one of the boy involved in a fire incident at Tala High School on July 22, 2014, recovering at Patanisho Nursing hospital in Kayole on August 31, 2104. FILE PHOTO | BILLY MUTAI | NATION MEDIA GROUP

Kenya’s education system demands that learners put a lot of hours into their school work and the two, having been weaned on the system, had become used to it. Their biological clocks, therefore, always wake them up way before sunrise. However, for the past two months it has not been to head to class, but to stare, blankly at the ceilings of hospital rooms. This tragic episode has forced them to open the rather sad chapter of painkillers, ointments, and frequent visits to doctors, and even though they are bravely trying to taking it in their stride, the scars, both physical and psychological, will remain with them for a long time.

They, however, still consider themselves lucky because one of their colleagues was killed in the fire while more than 10 others were admitted to the Kangundo District Hospital with serious burns. As the two students struggle to adopt to the demands of their new lives, their parents are grappling with the headache of when their children will resume their classes as they seek answers to what caused the fire and, most importantly, how they will pay the huge and still growing hospital bills.

NEEDED ASSISTANCE
Alice Nandwa, Samuel’s mother, was among the first parents to rush to the Kangundo District Hospital when news of the tragedy spread. She says she is traumatised by the ordeal her son is going through.

“He is constantly in pain and I do not know what to do,” she says. “He needs painkillers but we cannot afford them at the frequency he needs them. Even more painfully, at least for me, I do not understand why the Ministry of Education is silent about this. Our son is in a lot of pain and we are not able to help him. Can’t the state intervene?”Nandwa’s parents have had to borrow, beg, and pray for money to take him to hospital. 

“We were called to the school for a meeting after the fire. We thought they would shoulder the bills, but instead each parent was asked to pay Sh2,800 for the repair of the dormitory. I was shocked and angry.

“They later called me to the school and gave me a cheque for Sh15,000, which the school management said was their show of compassion. But Sh15,000 is peanuts when you have bills running into hundreds of thousands of shillings.”Warren’s mother, Susan, is also not happy by the way the authorities have treated her and her son.“Because our child was badly injured, we decided to take him to Aga Khan University Hospital in Nairobi for specialised treatment. He faced a double amputation and we were advised that he stood a better chance there. Our bill is now well over Sh700,000 and the school offered Sh15,000. Surely, Sh15,000? To make matters worse, they are yet to tell us what caused the fire. I demand justice for my son.”

INVESTIGATIONS
Matungulu police division chief Joseph Chesire, who arrived at the school shortly after the fire started, said a container suspected may have ferried “a highly inflammable liquid” was found near the scene.

The two sets of parents said they wondered how the police were carrying out their investigations. “Our boys were burnt in the school. They are witnesses to a crime, yet the police are yet to visit them to hear their side of the story. How do they intend to get to the truth if our children are not heard?” Susan asked.

They are also demanding that the school adhere to safety regulations to prevent similar injuries in the future. The dormitory’s windows, said Mr Nandwa, had iron grills and a single exit, yet all such buildings ought to have at least two exits. The architects put two doors in the structure, but the second exit was locked and reinforced with timber from the outside. 

The grills and closed exits contravene safety directives by the Ministry of Education which, among other requirements, stipulates that all doors to dormitories must not, at any time, be locked from the outside when learners are inside, that every dormitory should have a door at each end, and that dormitory windows should be without grills and easy to open. The school principal, Mr Edward Kivuva, said police investigations were still underway and that his management team was in discussions with the school board concerning the injured students.

As the days wear on and Mr Kivuva and his team chart the way forward, as the Ministry of Education dusts its safety regulations and pins them on notice boards across the country, all young Mboya and his friend, Nandwa, hope for is the healing of their injuries and the ability to hold a pen again.

Safety regulations are nothing if they are not implemented. The tragedy of that fact will live with Nandwa and Mboya for the rest of their lives.

Courtesy of Nation Online Newspaper

 http://www.nation.co.ke/lifestyle/We-survived-fierce-dorm-fire/-/1190/2476370/-/n99tli/-/index.html