Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Humpty Doo's Timinmin College suffered an electrical fire just as school went back yesterday. Susan Bowden from the Department of Education lets us know what families can expect from here.

Transcript

Humpty Doo's Timinmin College suffered an electrical fire just as school went back yesterday. Susan Bowden from the Department of Education lets us know what families can expect from here. · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: But as I said a little while ago, we know
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: that there was a fire at to Midmin College overnight.
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  Speaker 1: And joining us on the line to tell us a
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: little bit more about the situation, it is Susan Bowden,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: who is the executive director of Education Policy and Programs.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Susan.
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  Speaker 3: Good morning Katie.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Susan.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Can you talk us through exactly what happened at Midmin
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: College overnight?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, So, unfortunately, at about quarter past eleven last night,
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  Speaker 3: the fire alarms went off and the fire services responded
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  Speaker 3: very promptly, and there was smoke coming out of the
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: exhaust fans, and there was a fire in the electrical
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  Speaker 3: plant which impacted not only that electrical plant but a
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  Speaker 3: staff room at the school. That the problem was though, however,
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: is that plant provided electricity for the whole school, which
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  Speaker 3: meant that ninety percent of the school was without power
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: this morning.
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  Speaker 1: Oh goodness, mate, Susan. How extensive is that damage? And
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  Speaker 1: how soon do you expect that the power is going
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  Speaker 1: to be sort of restored?
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  Speaker 3: So the power was just came on in the last hour,
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  Speaker 3: which is fantastic. So school will be back on it
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  Speaker 3: to mid Min tomorrow and the canteen is okay in
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: terms of its food and everything like that. However, the
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  Speaker 3: fire was contained to one block, which was Block fifteen.
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  Speaker 3: That block had three classrooms, some study space as well
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  Speaker 3: as teacher staff room there is so even though the
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  Speaker 3: fire itself was in the electrical plant and a staff room,
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  Speaker 3: there was quite extensive both smoke and water damage to
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: the whole block.
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  Speaker 1: And what does that mean in terms of, you know,
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  Speaker 1: those classes going back tomorrow and school being able to operate.
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  Speaker 2: What impact is it going to have?
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  Speaker 3: So the school's responded very swiftly, and I do want
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  Speaker 3: to acknowledge and thank the team out at to Min
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  Speaker 3: Min College. They've been amazing this morning. They've started very
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: very early this morning, as you can imagine, but school
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  Speaker 3: will be on as normal. Obviously where those three classrooms
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  Speaker 3: are that have been impacted though, we'll have alternative class space,
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: but the school is confident that they can accommodate that.
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  Speaker 3: And then it's also making sure we take care of
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  Speaker 3: the teachers given that their staff rooms were impacted as well.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely, and just a really terrible way for the school
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: year to start. But thankfully it has sort of been
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  Speaker 1: contained to one area.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, that's right. Yeah, Day two so it's not the
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  Speaker 3: way you want to start the school year. But again,
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  Speaker 3: the school was amazing to Minmn College is a very
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  Speaker 3: large school and it's a very close connected community, so
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  Speaker 3: they were able to get the message out very quickly
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  Speaker 3: this morning that the school would be closed for one day,
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  Speaker 3: but certainly want to get the message out to families
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  Speaker 3: and to students at school will.
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  Speaker 1: Be back off, Susan, I'm not sure if you just
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: dropped out, then hopefully you are still on the line.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Did any of those students still turn up this morning?
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  Speaker 2: Unknowingly?
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  Speaker 3: Yes, a Hi, Kate, can you hear me? Yes? I can, great,
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  Speaker 3: thank you. Yeah, there was a handful of students who
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  Speaker 3: turned up this morning. The school did do a very
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: job in terms of getting text messages out to families. However,
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  Speaker 3: there were a small number of families who may not
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  Speaker 3: have got the message, so there were a small number
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  Speaker 3: of students who did present to school, but the school
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  Speaker 3: did contact those parents so they could collect those students
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  Speaker 3: as quickly as possible.
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  Speaker 1: And at this point in time, is there any idea
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  Speaker 1: what's caused this fire?
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  Speaker 3: Well, at this point in time, it was an electrical fault.
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  Speaker 3: Now we don't know whether that's due to the current
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: monsoon conditions we're experiencing or not. But it was definitely
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  Speaker 3: an electrical fault. It wasn't deliberately.
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  Speaker 1: Lit, Okay, So that is that will obviously be something
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  Speaker 1: that will set people's minds at ease. I mean, it's
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  Speaker 1: still obviously concerned that there's been an electrical fault, but
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  Speaker 1: very glad to hear that. You know, nobody's gone in
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  Speaker 1: there and done anything deliberately wrong.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, no, so aware, and we're also thankful that you know,
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  Speaker 3: it was at night, there were no people around at
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: the time, so that we're very thankful for that as well.
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  Speaker 1: Obviously it's very early days, but have you any idea
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  Speaker 1: how you know, financially or how much damage this has
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  Speaker 1: caused and how long it will take to get rectified.
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  Speaker 3: As you said, it's pretty early days. There has been
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  Speaker 3: a team out assessing the damage this morning, so there
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  Speaker 3: is some repairs that will be required through the building.
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  Speaker 3: There is furniture and equipment that we know is okay
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  Speaker 3: that we can salvage. It just needs a bit of
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  Speaker 3: a cleanup because it's got some soot on it. So
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  Speaker 3: we still are yet to get the actual figure.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: Well, we'll keep in contact.
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  Speaker 1: I'm sure that that will get a bit further information
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  Speaker 1: as the as the weeks go by, but I'm really
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  Speaker 1: pleased to hear that school's going to be able to
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  Speaker 1: go back tomorrow, and no doubt plenty of happy parents
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  Speaker 1: to hear that that's the.
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  Speaker 3: Case, that's right.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: Thank you Katie, thank you Susan.