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Speaker 1: But as I said a little while ago, we know

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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

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Speaker 1: little bit more about the situation, it is Susan Bowden,

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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.

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Speaker 2: Susan.

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Speaker 1: Can you talk us through exactly what happened at Midmin

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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

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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,

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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,

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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

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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

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Speaker 1: dropped out, then hopefully you are still on the line.

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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.

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Speaker 2: Thank you Katie, thank you Susan.