Yesterday’s fire at a Hove school brought back traumatic memories for former students who witnessed a similar blaze there almost exactly five years ago.
The eastern side of Blatchington Mill School’s ground floor – which includes the school’s canteen – caught fire yesterday evening, sending huge plumes of smoke over Hove.
It was an eerie echo of a fire which broke out in the canteen on 11 January, 2019.
Kelsey Chantel Osullivan, 19 was a year nine student at the school in 2019. She said: “When the first fire broke out in 2019 it was scary for everyone and I was a student there at the time. Me and my friends noticed something was up so went to have a look and saw flames in the canteen.
“Now hearing about the fire break out exactly five years on brings some trauma back.
“I feel bad for the current students and staff as memories in the building will be lost and they will have to amend the damage caused.”
Most pupils had left for the day when yesterday’s fire broke out at 5.40pm, but staff were still in the building and some pupils had to be evacuated from after school clubs, including cricket and archery in the nearby sports halls.
The school is now closed until at least next week, while a 16-year-old girl is now in custody after being arrested on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life.
In 2019, the fire broke out on a Friday morning, and hundreds of students had to be evactuated. As with yesterday, there were no injuries.
It started after a chip pan fire broke out in the school’s canteen. The school reopened the following Monday, but the canteen was out of action for some time.
The school then said: “We accounted for the whereabouts of every member of our 1600 student community and 200 staff community in under 10 minutes, despite the fact the alarm was at break time – a busy point in the day.
“After an incident like this we will review everything to determine cause and check our systems are suitable, but at this stage the event has been handled incredibly well.”
