Students, teachers clean school

CEBU, Philippines - Students and teachers helped one another yesterday in cleaning up the vicinity and the City Central Night High School building which was damaged by fire late Thursday evening.

High school students swept the school’s front yard and washed the building’s lobby even though classes will no longer be held in the 99-year-old Gabaldon building.

Teachers, on the other hand, segregated books and documents that are still useful from those that cannot be utilized anymore.

Emiliano Piquero, the school principal, said classes will resume on Tuesday and will be held in the nearby Arroyo building.

The Gabaldon building houses a total of 18 classrooms, 11 of which were gutted by the fire and three others were merely soaked in water during the firefighting operations.

Piquero said they can still opt to have classes in the remaining four classrooms, but most of the classes will now be held in the Arroyo building.

For the meantime, they will wait for the decision and plans of the Department of Education and the Cebu City Government on what to do with the Gabaldon building. On Tuesday, he is scheduled to attend a meeting with the said agencies to check the situation of the school.

Piquero further clarified that last Friday’s classes were suspended because the lights were also destroyed.

He said the Cebu City Council through Councilor Jose Daluz called up the Visayan Electric Company (VECO) to reconnect the electrical wires, thus, the lights were restored by Friday evening, he said.

Classes will resume on Tuesday since there will be no classes on Monday because of the Charter Day, Piquero further explained.

As for the books, Piquero said it is still fortunate enough that the fire only ate up the reference books, among others. Textbooks, which are important for the students, were already distributed to them before the fire, he added.

The fire, which broke out at past 10 pm last Thursday, ate up about P150,000 worth of property, including some books and the students’ test papers.

Until now, the Cebu City Fire Department is still determining the cause of the fire, which was initially traced to an unattended ceiling fan and liquefied petroleum gas tank at the school canteen, where the fire started.    - THE FREEMAN