Twenty-three students of the Tutorial High School and the Richard Ishmael Secondary School were rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) yesterday midday after suffering from smoke inhalation following a grass fire at the nearby Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) sport complex.
The ground at the complex caught on fire shortly after 11 am.
As the fire spread across the field of dried grass, clouds of smoke covered the area and firefighters were called.
The thick smoke forced teachers and students to evacuate their school buildings and suspend classes. Students from the Tutorial High School were allowed to go home, one student said.
After the evacuation of the schools, 21 students from the Tutorial High School and two from the Richard Ishmael Secondary School were rushed to the hospital.
Up to yesterday afternoon, 14 students remained at the hospital under observation.
Mitzy Campbell, GPH Public Relations Officer, told Stabroek News the students were treated for smoke inhalation. She noted that they all received oxygen and the necessary medical examinations.
She further noted that the students who are asthmatic and showed signs of complications were kept for extended observation.
A Tutorial High student, in the company of her mother, recalled that it was during the second period when she and her classmates were forced to evacuate their class. She stated that a cloud of smoke enveloped the entire the school compound. The student explained they were later moved to a ground opposite the school but the situation was worse. It was at this point that some students began to show symptoms of illness.
“Some students started to get black out and they were choking and vomiting. We went to the emergency room and they gave us oxygen…we were on oxygen for like two hours and some of my classmates are still in there,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Guyana Fire Service spent over three hours battling the grass fire before getting it under control.
