At least 21 children and a teacher suffered burn injuries on Thursday when a fire broke out in a private school, Dar-e-Arkam, in Shahdara on Thursday.
According to the report, the fire had erupted due to the leakage of gas from a heater when a teacher tried to turn the heater on.
The teacher named Mariam and 21 students, 10 girls and 11 boys, received burn injuries.
The injured children were identified as Reen daughter of Shahid, Hooria daughter of Tanveer, Safa daughter of Shahid, Khadija daughter of Nasir, Rubab daughter of Imran, Imran daughter of Liaqat, Laraib daughter of Tanveer, Momina daughter of Tahir, Zainab daughter of Waheed, Zebi daughter of Asif, Minahil daughter of Rizwan, Fiza daughter of Liaqat, Hannan Aslam son of Adnan Aslam, Muhammad Umar son of Shahid, Ali Shair son of Nafees, Fateen son of Shabbir, Usman son of Mubbasir, Furqan son of Akbar, Mujtaba son of Tauqeer, Haram son of Faisal, Hareem son of Saim and Ashar son of Kamran.
Fire fighters used four fire tenders to extinguish the fire and evacuated the children from the building. The injured were rushed to burn center at Mayo Hospital.
Parents of students said that the children told the teacher that the class room was filled with the smell of gas but teacher did not take them seriously.
“The school management has not made any arrangements for fire safety,” Mariam’s father said, adding that an action should be taken against the principal.
According to the doctors the children had minor injuries with 10 to 20 percent burns and were out of danger.
Shahdara SHO Atif Zulfikar told Pakistan Today that an FIR had been launched against the principal Muhammad Ashraf, administrator Amar and the owner of the school named Chaudary Shoukat.
He said that the principal had been arrested but the owner and administrator had managed to escape.
Zulfikar said that the class room caught fire due to negligence
Lahore DCO Noorul Mengal ordered the registration of an FIR against Dar-e-Arkam school administration while the education EDO sealed the school.