A fire has reportedly wrecked the female hostel in the Jos campus of the Plateau State Polytechnic

According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the fire, which started around 8.30 a.m., raged on till 11.44, causing confusion among students and staff – No life was, however, lost.

A security man, Yusuf Ade said;

“Many students had left for lectures when the fire started; no one was around to remove anything from the burning hostel.”

The report also states that fire service personnel arrived the scene around 11.20 a.m. when the hostel had been brought down.

The Rector, Mr Dauda Gyemang, who described the incident as “shocking”, said the fire was started by a gas explosion – of which use of gas in the hostel is prohibited.

“We thank God that no life was lost in the inferno, but nothing was rescued,” he said.

“We shall move the students to another place because the building is completely burnt down. It is very devastating,” he said.

“The problem here is that students do not adhere to the institution’s regulations; they are not supposed to be cooking in the hostels,” he fumed.

The hostel’s Representative, Miss Christiana Azi, said the students lost everything “including original copies of their credentials, clothes, food stuff and other valuables”.

“The incident is shocking and devastating. It will be very difficult to recover from it,” she said.