By LILIAN U. OKORO

The Management of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) has instructed students of its College of Nursing Sciences to go on two weeks vacation following a fire outbreak in the college.

The Chief Medical Director of LUTH, Prof. Wasiu Adeyemo, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Lagos.

NAN reports that one of the hostels in the College of Nursing Sciences was gutted by fire at about 9.00 a.m. on Thursday, but was put under control with the help of some individuals and the Fire Service personnel.

Adeyemo said that the two-week window vacation was declared to enable the management assess the damage done by the fire and come up with policy resolutions to avert future occurrence of such incident.

He explained that the cause of the fire was related to a gas cylinder, following the inability of a student to put off the gas cylinder after cooking.

He said that students had been directed to go home for two weeks, to resume on Jan. 22.

According to him, there is an arrangement for the students to be receiving online lectures while on the vacation.

“We just woke up to be informed that one of the nursing hostels was on fire at about 9.00 a.m, and luckily for us, it happened when the students were in the classrooms.

“Although, it was huge, but with help of the fire service personnel, we were able to put out the fire. Before they came, some people were using soap and water to quench the fire.

“Along the process, few people sustained injury and were taken to the ward for treatment and have since been discharged. The room where the fire started was totally damaged, including the two adjacent rooms to it.

“The incident was as a result of the carelessness of one of the students who forgot to put off the gas cylinder after cooking,” Adeyemo said.

He reiterated that the hospital’s management would make policy resolutions to prevent future occurrence.

Adeyemo stated that the hospital would not take it against any student, but must put policy in place for precautionary measures.

He added that the hospital would resolve whether the students might be prohibited from cooking with gas henceforth or not.

“Initially, they were using hotplates to cook, overtime, it became too expensive for the hospital to afford.

“In a situation where there were over 600 students and each of them had a cooking gas cylinder, certainly, such disaster would happen one day.

“Meanwhile, we have not taken any decision yet, but we are going to look at the situation critically within the two weeks and decide on what policy to put in place to avert future occurrence, and we are not taking it against any student,” Adeyemo said. (NAN)