MONROVIA, Liberia – According to BBC, the fire is believed to have broken out in the early hours of Wednesday morning on September 18, when Koranic school students were sleeping in a building near their mosque.
At least 27 people, many of them children, have been discovered dead at the boarding school in a suburb of the Liberian capital Monrovia.
Eyewitness Pastor Emmanuel Herbert told the BBC that he woke up to sounds of the fire and raised the alarm.
“When I looked through the window, I saw the whole place blazing with fire,” he said. “But I could not get into the building because there was only one entrance, which was blocked,” said Emmanuel.
Police spokesman, Moses Carter told Reuters news agency that the fire was caused by an electrical problem, but investigations are continuing into what caused the deadly fire, as police proceeds to look for bodies in the building, in the Paynesville.
President George Weah visited the scene and expressed his condolences, as hundreds of people gathered outside the school weeping and wailing. People stood in shock as Red Cross ambulances evacuated the bodies of the children from their boarding house in Paynesville, seven miles (11.3km) east of Monrovia.
The plan for the burial was to follow shortly after, in keeping with Islamic law which says a person must be buried as soon as possible after death, usually within 24 hours.
