UNIMAID Students Blame Lack Of Facilities For Incessant Fire Incidents At Hostels

Recent fire incidents at the hostels of the University of Maiduguri in Borno State have been attributed to the absence of kitchens, use of adulterated kerosene and overcrowding, DOGARA BITRUS writes


In a space of four weeks, over seven students’ rooms in the University of Maiduguri female hostels were razed down by fire, which resulted from adulterated kerosene that the students were using to cook. According to some of the students, the adulterated product has been in circulation from the beginning of the semester, but there were no recorded fire incidents until recently.


A 100-level Sociology student resident at the Titanic Hall, Comfort Nweke, stated “When we resumed this semester, we noticed the colour of the kerosene and how it smells. We noticed that it looks like diesel, but burns like petrol.


“We didn’t bother to check with the sellers until some weeks into our final tests before the exams.


“The first fire was recorded in the Aisha Buhari Hall, followed by the Murtala Hall and others.”


A 300-level Library and Information Science student, Theresa Innocent, said, “The school management stopped us from using cooking gas.


The kerosene that is causing the problem is being sold at the ‘Commercials’ by a security official and another woman. The kerosene has a particular flame that is similar to that of petrol. It flames like gasoline.

We complained to the people that sell the product, but they denied adulterating the kerosene; they said that was how they bought the product from the wholesalers.


“The other day, the school went and took samples of the kerosene for testing, but we have not heard of the outcome. The whole thing looks suspicious.


Remember that we protested against the poor infrastructural facilities available in the school some months back after which the issues of electricity and water supply to the hostels were addressed.


“We now have five hours of power supply from 7pm to 11pm every day. They pump water for us at night and early in the morning. But we don’t know what brought about these fire outbreaks.”


According to the students, several female residents have sustained severe injuries and have their education disrupted as a result of the recurring fire outbreaks in the hostels,
Another students, Aisha Adamu, stated “The female hostels comprise of Ali Monguno, BOT, Titanic, Murtala 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, and Aisha Buhari A, B, C and D. All of these hostels have experienced fire incidents in the past four weeks, starting from our test period.


“The first incident was recorded at Room 7 on the first floor of Titanic, followed by the Aisha Buhari Hall. Though some of the rooms were not burnt completely, most of the rooms were badly affected. Like the one that happened at Murtala, the room was completely burnt and no property could be salvaged.

In some other rooms, the fire was extinguished, but not until it had destroyed some students’ property.”


So far, there are five female students who are critically ill and receiving treatment at the teaching hospital. Two of the students suffered burns from the outbreak in the Aisha Buhari Hall. Three others were burnt in the Murtala Hall.


It was learnt that there were several incidents in the boys’ hostels too but they were not reported. Among some of the students, who sustained injuries, is a particular girl, who suffered burns and sustained a broken leg while being rescued from the inferno on Saturday. Room A2 caught fire on Sunday as well as another room in Titanic.


Two persons suffered burns on Saturday and one of the victims suffered a broken bone when she was thrown down from the window by a matron in the hostel. It was in the process of rescuing her that she broke her leg.


One of the victims of the fire incident was crying and shouting, “Will I survive this? Will I be alive? Please tell me if I’ll die from these injuries.”

“The matron, who attempted rescuing the students at the Murtala Hostel, broke down in tears after coming out of the burning room. She was screaming on top of her voice that she fainted several times. She broke more than a crate of eggs on the girls, which actually helped in extinguishing the fire on the burning students. But the burns were so severe that I doubt if she will survive,” Adamu added.

According to the students, the school management has addressed some of the issues the female students protested against, but they insist that accommodation remains a major challenge, while the adulterated kerosene is a major cause of fire outbreaks.


Kariyi Bulus, a 300-level student of the Faculty of Management Sciences, told The PUNCH, “Honestly, congestion is a major factor in these fire incidents, because they sell the hostels to us at exorbitant prices from N35,000. Our registration fee is not more than N40,000 depending on the department, but the accommodation fee is so high and we pay the money in a session of two semesters.

“Remember that UNIMAID has three semesters in a 12-calendar-month; so, we pay for accommodation after every session; meaning that our parents pay accommodation fees twice in a calendar year. How do you expect students to afford other bills if we don’t sell portions of our hostels to foot some of our bills?

“A room allocated to eight students will end up having 18 or 20 students, because each legitimate occupier has three or four squatters and the school is infested by mosquitoes and as a result, nets are tied to all our beds. We cook in the same room. Our clothes, books, reading tables and foodstuffs are crammed in the same room. That’s why when the stove bursts into flames; it affects the whole room as our belongings are jam-packed in one area.”


Another student, Dorcas Balam, stated, “The fire on Saturday at the Aisha Hall was caused by a cooking stove. Some students were cooking and before they knew it, flames from the stove caught the mosquito net and two students were critically injured. The other one at the Murtala Hall was also as a result of kerosene combustion.


“A female student here in Titanic was pouring kerosene into the same stove while cooking, and the stove exploded and burst into flames. The whole room got burnt despite the efforts of other students to extinguish it before the personnel of the fire service arrived at the scene.


“Amidst the tension, one of our matrons told us that these fire outbreaks were a lesson to us students, because they had been stopping us from cooking inside the rooms, but we refused to listen to them.”


“The school management has not called or addressed the students on the development, but it has issued a circular that henceforth, we should cook in the veranda of the hostels, but the veranda is not conducive for cooking and there is no single kitchen or cooking space apart from inside the rooms we live in,” Kariyi Bulus noted.


In a notice to the students titled, ‘Warning Notice on Cooking in Bedrooms’, the Dean Students Affairs of the institution, Prof Gambo Danjuma, said, “Recently, the university has witnessed fire outbreaks in the students’ halls of residence, specifically the girls’ hostels. This is attributed to cooking in the rooms in contravention of the rules and regulations of hostel residence.

“In order to protect the lives and properties of the students, the management of the university has directed the hall officers to ensure prevention of such occurrences by expelling from the hostels any student found to be cooking in the room.


“Any attempt by a student or group of students to assault or disrupt any member of staff from discharging his/her official responsibility amounts to gross misconduct that will result in expulsion from the university.”

In a statement through the Public Relations Officer, Danjuma confirmed the incidents.
He said, “There was a mild fire incident at a room in the Murtala Hall, one of the female students’ hostels of the university.


“Preliminary investigation has revealed that kerosene explosion as a result of suspected adulteration was responsible for the fire.


“Three students were affected, with one of them seriously injured. All of them are undergoing treatment at one of the hospitals in Maiduguri.


“The fire has already been extinguished by men of the university’s Fire Service Unit. No other part of the hostel was affected by the fire.


“This unfortunate incident is regrettable, especially in view of recent efforts by the management to enforce fire safety regulations in students’ hostels.”