At least 13 female students suffered panic attacks and slight suffocation on Wednesday when a fire broke out at one of the classrooms of the 3rd Secondary School for Girls in Al-Mubarraz. The students were taken by ambulance to a hospital in Hofuf and to Aramco's hospital. Major General Hamed Al-Ju'aid, Civil Defense Chief in the Eastern Province, blamed the fire on electrical overloading. Civil Defense teams evacuated 857 students and teachers. Despite the limited size of the fire, some of the students gave in to panic. Slamming the negligence exhibited at a number of schools in the area and affirmed that his department would conduct large scale inspections of schools and would file a report on this matter with the emirate. Al-Ju'aid indicated that a number of schools are threatened with disasters if principals continue to insist on placing barbed wire on walls, turning schools into detention facilities: “Some schools observe this practice without heeding safety considerations”, he said. Colonel As'ad Othman, spokesperson to the media at the area's Civil Defense Department, said that investigation of the fire is under-way. “The fire extended from a chair to the remaining parts of the classroom”, he said. – Okaz __
