An unfortunate attack on Kila Kila Secondary School’s administration building in Port Moresby, early hours of this morning that led to the burining, was the second of two attempts to destroy the administration block.
Deputy Principal for Student Services at Kila Kila Secondary, Ms Pala Balun, in her recount of the events mentioned that two weeks prior to the events that occurred in the early hours of this morning, there had been an attempt made by a few persons to sabotage or burn the building but they plans were thwarted by the school secutiry guards.
Ms. Balun who also lives on campus with her family said in the early hours of today, around 3:10am, she awoke to the sound of dogs barking and metals grinding and walked out in the dark to inspect what caused the commotion.
“This is not the first time people have tried to burn down the administration block. Just a few weeks ago there was an attempt to burn the building down, but we were lucky to have stopped that from occurring.”
She said as she stepped out of her home, she was approached by one of the school security guards who informed her of the situation.
“So I woke my husband up and went tried to see what best we could do.”
She said out of fear and panic, it wasn’t until around 3:52am that she finally called the Town Fire Service which arrived around 4:10am in the morning by that time the fire had already engulfed the whole building with almost three quarters completely destroyed.
Within the Administration building, according to Ms. Balun, included teaching materials, school records dating back to the founding of the school and also a few of her personal documents as well.
This is not the first time the school has experienced the burning down of buildings. The first occurred in 2018 when a classroom block was set ablaze by a disgruntled student. The second incident saw the Agriculture and Practical Skills building partially burnt down and now the complete destruction of the administration building.
As per the advice from principle Herman Panai, the school will resume normal classes tomorrow.
4 PERSONS OF INTEREST TAKEN IN FOR QUESTIONING
3 security guards and a man living in the area surrounding the Kila Kila Secondary school have been taken in for questioning by Police following the burning of the School Administration Building this morning.
Badili Police Station Commander, Inspector Jerry Obert this morning detained the 4 men and advised that preliminary investigations will commence.
Police believe that the burning of the building may be the work of an arsonist.
“We will not be drawing any conclusions as yet as we are still investigating the matter. These guys are not suspects but persons of interest.”
School records and other documents including student certificates that were not collected went up in flames. The fire is believed to have been started around 3:10am early in the morning and as per eyewitnesses living on the school premises who say that they heard suspicious sounds around the building, prior to noticing the flames.
Principle of Kila Kila Secondary, Mr. Herman Panai has confirmed that despite the destruction of the administration building and loss of school records and student assessment records, classes are set to resume tomorrow.