Explosion at a school in Cauca left one person injured

An explosion of a gas cylinder at a school restaurant located in El Tambo, Cauca, left a woman injured and several damages to the site. This situation would have happened accidentally, however, the authorities seek to clarify the facts. According to some local media, this mishap would leave several children from the area who attend classes in this place without the attention of school feeding.

According to the first information from the authorities who are already there, a woman identified as Sandra Cabezas was injured and the infrastructure was badly affected after the explosion of the gas cylinder in the educational institution located in the Cuatro Esquinas sector 35 kilometers from Popayán.

It was also confirmed that there were no deaths at the scene of the events that occurred in the morning hours of last Monday, April 18, 2022, however, there was serious damage to the school restaurant and one of the multiple classrooms. One of the local media was at the scene of the events and showed how the Educational Institution turned out.

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Walls completely destroyed, the roof of the building collapsed, broken windows, school supplies such as seats, tables, desks and some roofs of other school areas of the school were quite affected. Apparently Sandra Cabezas suffered some burns from the cylinder explosion, but not seriously, so she is recovering at home.

Luis Fernando Vergara, representative of the town located in El Tambo, confirmed that, “the cylinder exploded when food was being prepared, slightly affecting the cook, who is out of danger”. Relief agencies in the area were able to respond to the emergency that left no fatalities, but did damage the school's infrastructure.

“There was damage to the walls, ceiling and belongings. Fortunately, there are no injured students or administrative staff,” said Luis Fernando Vergara after the events were recorded. The restaurant, kitchen and school store were destroyed by the magnitude of the explosion, so they will be out of service for a while.

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None of the students or teachers of the educational institution was injured after the emergency because at the time of the explosion of the gas cylinder they were receiving classes, however, they had to evacuate the premises.

In an interview with Unicauca Estéreo, the rector of the school, Jesús Humberto Narváez referred to what happened in the morning hours of April 18. “We restarted activities normally, on Saturday and Sunday the adjustments had been made, the restaurant and store infrastructures were ready to attend to the students and on Monday we received the PAE and classes were being attended normally. At about 9:30 a.m. the students noticed a fire in the school store and a pipette caught fire in the valve and there was a gas leak, this caused a fire. Between the fire and the explosion it took a few seconds.”

“There were three people inside, one of the ladies lit a little candle, came out. The teachers noticed the fire and asked to evacuate. The students came out, the manipulators came out and in the blink of an eye he made an explosion that blew up the entire roof of the multiple classroom, the kitchen and destroyed the furniture, the fridge, everything that was there. The economic losses are great, but we were blessed by the Lord and Our Lady because we had no misfortunes from people, fortunately only the question of nerves,” said the rector of the university.

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