Though no life was lost, some students were said to have sustained injuries while they were running to safety.
A private college in Enugu State, Peaceland College of Education, would have been razed to ashes on Thursday, but for the intervention of the state fire service.
The fire was said to have razed some parts of the female hostel of the institution located opposite the Matured Students Programme (MSP) of the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), near the popular Nkpokiti junction, at Independence Layout, Enugu around 2:30pm.
The incident caused pandemonium and confusion as students and teachers scampered for safety.
Though no life was lost, some students were said to have sustained injuries while they were running to safety.
The actual cause of the fire that destroyed property worth over N30million was yet to be established.
SaharaReporters reports that the fire destroyed the roofs, ceilings, windows, beddings among others at the top floor of three storey building.
Some of the Higher National Diploma (HND) students who spoke to SaharaReporters, lamented that their Ordinary National Diploma (OND) certificates were burnt.
A student who gave her name as Chinwe Odo said, "We were in our different classes when we suddenly heard the sound of explosion and when we went out to find out, we saw fire coming out from one of the rooms in the hostel.
"Some of us, especially HND students came to school with our OND Certificates because we were told that there would be verification by people from Abuja. Those certificates were razed by the fire.”
However, a senior staff of the college, who preferred anonymity, told journalists that the destruction in the school was huge.
"Though, no student was in the room where the fire started, we suspect that somebody might have plugged a device and forgot to put it off. As a result, we lost a lot. The roofing, the ceilings, a lot of things up there; in fact, we cannot put a figure to the destruction. But we really lost property worth over N30million to that fire.
"But we thank the men of the Enugu State Fire Service. Without them, the entire buildings here would have gone into the flames", the staff said.
As of the time of filing this report, the school authorities had yet to issue a statement on the incident.