SANTA CRUZ, St Elizabeth — The loss of irreplaceable records spanning a century is among the most painful realities of administrators and past students of Leeds Primary and Infant School near here after fire gutted four vital parts of the campus, including offices, on Sunday night forcing classes to go online.

Principal Christine Dawkins-Beadle said the fire has left the school’s 238 students, parents and staff heartbroken.

“It is really a sad occasion right now. We didn’t have face-to-face school on Monday. Our students are displaced at the moment. They are on the online platform. The office which hosts all the records is completely gone. Everything is gone,” she told the Jamaica Observer by phone on Monday.

“The staffroom, everything in there is gone. The library, which was recently renovated, everything — desk, chairs, books — gone, so right now I don’t even know; I am just sitting here and I am just lost,” she added.

A devastated Dawkins-Beadle spoke of how the school is trying to cope and rise again.

“The building can be repaired and replaced, but when it comes to records that have been there for 100 years just gone up in the flames like that… you cannot get those back, so it is like starting all over again,” she said, adding that her students understand the devastation that the school faces.

“It is hard, but I am hopeful. The teachers are hard workers. I have wonderful teachers and they are behind me and the parents as well. Some of the children came around and hugged [me] and they said they understand what is going on. They are coming back to assist with cleaning up,” she said.

Head of the St Elizabeth Fire Department Superintendent Kimar Brooks estimated the loss caused by the fire at $50 million.

He told the Observer that the Santa Cruz Fire Station received a call about 11:55 pm to respond to the fire.

“When we got to the location… the fire was seen on the eastern wing. We immediately got into operation utilising two medium-sized jets and within 10 minutes the fire was contained to four rooms. We continued our operation for another hour before the fire was fully extinguished,” he said.

“During our cooling down exercise we observed that significant damage was done to the principal’s office, the library, the staffroom, and one classroom,” he added, while stating that investigations are ongoing to determine the cause of the fire.

However, Dawkins-Beadle believes the fire was caused by an ongoing electrical issue.

“I am still waiting on the official report, but it would seem as if it was an electrical short circuit that caused the fire. It started in the office and the breaker is in the office. We have been having problems for a while now… We have been trying to rectify it on our own with the electrician coming in and trying to offload some things and so on,” she explained.

She said when the Culture, Health, Arts, Sports and Education (CHASE) Fund built a new infant department the electrical issue was minimised.

“CHASE gave us a building for a new infant department and when they came they had to do [some work]. After that, we realised that we were not having that short circuit so often. As a matter of a fact, we didn’t have any until just the other day I noticed on the morning of PEP [Primary Exit Profile exam] that there was no electricity on the block that we would have hosted the students for PEP. I quickly called the electrician; he came in and he rectified that,” the principal said while pointing out that the electrician had still recommended that more electrical work be done.

Leeds, believed to be one of the oldest primary schools in St Elizabeth, had also been affected by roof leaks.

Dawkins-Beadle is hopeful that the damaged sections of the school will be rebuilt.

“Some of my male teachers would go on the roof and stop it with the Stop Leak, because it leaked a lot. Sometimes for things to get better it just has to get worse,” she said.

“When you hear of this happening and you sympathise, well now I can empathise, because you are saying ‘Oh, my God, I hope this doesn’t happen to me’ and for it to hit home like this, it is just hard, it really is hard, and I don’t wish this on anybody, because we worked very hard to get our records up to date,” she said.

Dawkins-Beadle explained that the Ministry of Education recently commended the school for its record-keeping, which was in “top condition”.

“… and for this to happen it just takes away everything, all of our hard work,” she lamented.

In the aftermath of the fire the school has put plans in place to accommodate grade six students.

“Our grade six students will be coming in on Tuesday. The parents are ready. The investigators came in and they gave us the go-ahead for cleaning up, so the parents will be coming in on Tuesday [as] the MP (Member of Parliament) will be facilitating us with a truck that will be taking away the debris,” said Dawkins-Beadle.

“We are hoping to get the clean-up activity going and get things hopefully back on track. I am just grateful that no life was lost during the process,” she added.

Dawkins-Beadle said students sitting PEP are the most affected by the fire.

“With PEP around the corner it is really difficult for my babies. I can just imagine how they are feeling right now, because of the way I am feeling…We are going to try our very best to accommodate and facilitate them as much as we can, because education has to go on, one way or the other. We have many people who are willing to come on board and to assist us, so we are just waiting for all of that,” she said.

“The ministry has gotten in contact with me and I know they will do everything in their power for us to get back on track in short order,” she said.

Member of Parliament for St Elizabeth North Eastern Delroy Slowley said the fire has affected the brain of the school.

“All the records have been absolutely destroyed, all the manual records from decades ago, way back, so that will definitely have a serious impact as we go forward in terms of persons who would have wanted to ascertain historical data, including myself, because I am also a past student from the 1980s,” he said.

“It is a really big hit. I have been a part of the institution from way back as I was also board chairman for about 12 years. My heart is bleeding,” he added.

He said Education Minister Senator Dr Dana Morris Dixon has been responsive to the incident.

“She has committed to ensuring that we get going as soon as possible and, based on the nature of the situation, it is dire. Normally, for procurement, it would be a length of time, but under this situation we are going to have to look at emergency procurement,” Slowley said.

He said among the options being looked at is to utilise an adjoining church hall.

“We are going to make arrangements to have classes being conducted at that venue to get more students coming in face to face,” he said.