Officials suspect arson in fire at St Benedict’s

Sascha Wil­son

Pre­lim­i­nary in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to yes­ter­day’s fire at St Bene­dict’s Col­lege, San Fer­nan­do, which forced stu­dents and teach­ers to evac­u­ate, sug­gest it may not have been ac­ci­den­tal, a se­nior fire of­fi­cer has said.

For­tu­nate­ly, no one was in­jured, and all stu­dents and staff were ac­count­ed for. The fire broke out around 12.20 pm in the store/dra­ma room of the au­di­to­ri­um build­ing at the back of the com­pound, an al­so dam­aged a wood­en stage. A stu­dent alert­ed a teacher, and every­one was evac­u­at­ed to near­by St Bene­dict’s RC Church in La Ro­maine.