Profile Of An Institution - Penyrheol School

Profile Of An Institution

Fire Trouble In Gorseinon - The Damage

At approximately 1am on Saturday the 18^th of March, 2006, a fire light up the small village of Gorseinon, the close community were in utter shock when finding out that the local school, Penyrheol Comprehensive was the cause. The 1000 pupil school was at blaze, at the time no one knew how such a thing could have started. South Wales Police were instantly urging for any witnesses to come forward with any information, later ‘BBC News’ told us that there were witnesses who saw 3 teenage males of around 17 years old running away from the building shortly after the fire began. “I just can’t believe it, it’s such a shock!” says Sion Davies, a former Penyrheol student, who had come home from University to visit his family that weekend.

This incident wasn’t the first fire ever seen at the school, in 1976 the building had to be rebuilt after a fire caused damage.

At 01.30 on Saturday morning the fire was spotted and emergency services were beginning to arrive. At 03.30 there was strong winds causing the fire to spread and the smoke was out of control, fire men had to be called from all over South and West Wales. By 05.00 the fire was under control and the damage was beginning to show. The school had vanished taking with it Science, Business, Computing, Staff Areas, Dining Rooms and kitchens.

The worst thing that came out of this ordeal is the loss of GCSE work, the final Art Coursework that takes two years to complete had disappeared with the fire and had been handed in the week before. Also it has caused problems throughout Gorseinon. The computer systems in Gorseinon Library was destroyed as it is controlled from the school, but luckily it was sorted out quite soon after the fire, and is now one of the main facilities for students and staff to use to work. ‘Communications Manager for the Swansea Education Department,’ Rhodri Jones, explained what has been happening since the fire, “Years 10 and 11 have returned to school using the Annex buildings provided, we are hoping that years 7, 8 and 9 will return shortly after the Easter holidays. During the time since the school has been closed activities have been arranged to keep pupils busy, such as trips to Rhosili. Teachers have also been moved to different locations in the community. Although the school has closed, extra curriculum activities have carried on as normal, for example the football team are still playing other schools weekly, and the Schools Business trip to Ireland proceeded as planned. As you can see the fire has not caused any major disturbances, we are hoping to get school up and going again as soon as possible.”

05-04-06