SHILLONG, May 21: A major fire on Sunday destroyed much of the 131-year-old structure of the KJP Girls Higher Secondary School at Mission Compound.
The upper primary section and secondary section from classes 6 to 10 apart from the offices of the principal and vice-principal were affected by the fire that broke out at about 1 am.
No one was hurt in the incident but a young hosteller had to be shifted to the Dr H. Gordon Roberts Hospital as she had an anxiety attack after seeing the fire, police said.
The boarders residing in the adjacent building were all safe and have been temporarily shifted to the community hall of the Mission Compound locality, an official said.
Police said fire tenders were deployed from the headquarters here to fight the inferno and help save lives.
“According to the preliminary report, a short-circuit may have caused the fire. But we will be able to confirm after further investigating it,” police said.
An initial assessment said the damage to the school property due to the blaze would run into several crores of rupees.
The members of the school’s managing committee, including the principal refrained from speaking to media persons before holding a meeting to assess the situation on Monday. A meeting of the teaching and non-teaching staff is likely to follow that of the managing committee.
Among the prized articles lost in the fire was a piano from the time of the Welsh missionaries more than a century ago. The piano was in perfect condition, it was learnt.
All important documents and records of the school were reduced to ashes. Only the souvenir of the quasquicentennial jubilee (125th anniversary), which was kept on the top of the amplifier of the PA system of the school hall, was not affected by the fire.
Officials said six fire tenders were rushed to the site. But they could not go close to school due to the narrow lane. This slowed down the attempt to douse the blaze by the fire service personnel.
People present on the scene questioned the lack of professional advice to the firemen which also led to the delay. They said the firemen looked clueless without any senior police officials around to guide them.
Darwin M. Sangma, the superintendent of police of Fire and Emergency Services said his team was ascertaining the probable cause of the fire.
“Yesterday (Saturday), there was another huge fire incident in the Nongmensong area, and our teams were pressed into service since 11 pm. By the time this broke out, our fire tenders had run out of water, and they had to rush for refilling before reaching the spot. They could not have a meal until late Sunday morning. You see, we have extremely limited resources,” he said.
The KJP Girls’ Higher Secondary School was an offshoot of an erstwhile educational institution established by the Welsh missionaries at Nongsawlia village in Sohra (erstwhile Cherrapunjee), where it was converted into a proper school in 1864.
The ill-fated school was started in 1892 in a small house at the present location in Mission Compound with an area of 11,067 square metres. It became an exclusive school for girls that year when a missionary of the Welsh Presbyterian Mission Society took over its administration.
The great earthquake of 1897 razed the school to the ground and a little shed was utilised temporarily until a new school building with government aid of £1,250 was completed in 1899.
The institution was recognised as a high school for girls in 1912.
The new school building was completed in 1926 and inaugurated by Sir John Kerr, the then Governor of Assam Province. It celebrated its centenary in 1992 and its quasquicentennial jubilee in 2017.
