KHS fire burns down science room

Over $50,000 worth of computer and information technology equipment went up in smoke when a fire set off by suspected arsonists late Saturday night engulfed Kagman High School’s Environmental Science and Oceanography Room.

KHS principal Doreen Tudela said the equipment lost included newly acquired laptops, LCD projectors, and three desktop computers that were inside the building. She said the fire also damaged the school’s audio-visual equipment and Internet wireless modem.

Tudela said the science room houses the main electrical switchboards for the entire school wing’s power sources. She said they would have to reconnect the wirings and renovate the entire room at a cost of $200,000.

She said witnesses who live at the back of the school told her they saw three juveniles scamper out of the facility Saturday at around 11pm.

Tudela said the Department of Public Safety informed her yesterday that they already have suspects in the case but were not at liberty to disclose their identities.

Police information officer Eric David told the Saipan Tribune yesterday that investigation was still ongoing and that it would take at least three days for them to provide the results of the investigation.

As of yesterday afternoon, the entire wing of the high school was still off limits to students.

Tudela said a teacher who lives just two houses away, Zeny Ngiramolau, heard the fire alarms go off shortly after 11pm and immediately called police for assistance.

The firefighters came to the school and found the science room already engulfed by flames. Tudela said the fire fighting team was able to put out the fire at 11:45pm that same night. She said the criminal investigation unit returned to the scene at 3am when the fumes and charred odor from the fire had subsided.

Tudela said the team found blackboards and tables vandalized by spray-painted profanities. The newly acquired LCD projectors and a laptop from the Public School System, given to KHS last March through federal grants, were also completely charred. A 29-inch television had melted due to the intensity of the heat, while microscopes, desktop computers, printers, and wireless computer modems were reduced to cinders.

Tudela said she is upset, frustrated, and disappointed about the incident. She said all the school wanted was to give their students a better education by providing the latest technology that would improve and enhance learning for them. She said the school only got the projector last week and the science room was the only one in the school that had wireless technology. Of the 28 rooms in the campus, the science room was the only room they allotted for technology awareness, she said.

“Now, we are not even back to square one. We’re back to square zero,” she lamented.

Fred Reiman, who has been teaching environmental science at KHS for the past 30 years and was the one in charge of the room, said he also lost some of his personal belongings to the fire.