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29/08/2002
Downpatrick school blaze treated as arson
Police in Downpatrick are treating a fire at a local Catholic primary school as malicious.
The alarm was raised just after 4.30pm last night when it appears papers in a bin at Convent of Mercy Primary School in Edward Street were set alight. The blaze quickly spread to the roof and roof space before fire crews called to the scene were able to get the blaze under control.
Six classrooms were smoke damaged by the fire which caused extensive damage to the roof of the school building.
The school principal Paul McQuillan said he hoped that the school would open on Monday next week.
Mr McQuillan said that despite the destruction of some teachers' work in readiness for the new term he did not want the fire to have a detrimental effect on the education of the children.
A spokesperson for the Department of Education said: “The arson attack on Mercy Primary School is totally unacceptable and serves no other purpose than to divert financial resources away from the classroom where it is most needed. Attacks such as this cannot be condoned and everyone in the community has a responsibility to make it clear that there can be no possible justification for any school to be damaged.”
Elsewhere, in Derry a fire at Diamond Corrugated Cases warehouse in the Pennyburn Industrial Estate has caused severe damage to the building.
(SP)
The alarm was raised just after 4.30pm last night when it appears papers in a bin at Convent of Mercy Primary School in Edward Street were set alight. The blaze quickly spread to the roof and roof space before fire crews called to the scene were able to get the blaze under control.
Six classrooms were smoke damaged by the fire which caused extensive damage to the roof of the school building.
The school principal Paul McQuillan said he hoped that the school would open on Monday next week.
Mr McQuillan said that despite the destruction of some teachers' work in readiness for the new term he did not want the fire to have a detrimental effect on the education of the children.
A spokesperson for the Department of Education said: “The arson attack on Mercy Primary School is totally unacceptable and serves no other purpose than to divert financial resources away from the classroom where it is most needed. Attacks such as this cannot be condoned and everyone in the community has a responsibility to make it clear that there can be no possible justification for any school to be damaged.”
Elsewhere, in Derry a fire at Diamond Corrugated Cases warehouse in the Pennyburn Industrial Estate has caused severe damage to the building.
(SP)
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