Kadoma- At least 53 students and four staff members from Jameson High School were briefly
hospitalised at Kadoma Hospital allegedly inhaling poisonous gases last Thursday morning.
According to the Provincial Medical Diretor, Dr Celestino Dhege the incident occurred in the morning
during assembly. Fortunately by end of day all learners and staff had been released with boarders
allowed to go home while investigations into the incident continue.
Mashonaland West Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Marian Chombo also visited
the students and staff who were admitted at Kadoma Hospital.
“The incident happened at around 7am during morning assembly and the learners started to smell and
inhale gas which led to some of them to lose consciousness.
Öur team was alerted and they came to the school to manage the learners. We have not been able to
identify the source of the gas leakage but we are on the ground to investigate the cause of that
leakage,” said Dr Dhege.
One of the affected, a Form Three student, Vimbainashe Wirelesi said it was like a gas had been thrown
in the room and suffocated them.
"We were at assembly in the hall and it was like something had burst producing a deadly smell leading
us to struggle to breathe and I suddenly felt hot and most of us became dizzy and lost consciousness and
were rushed to hospital,” said Wireless.
The Kadoma Municipality, Environmental Management Agency,, the Zimbabwe National Army and
police were called in for further investigations and findings have not been released yet.
“So far we have excluded methane gas as the cause, but we still want to check if it was sulphur oxide or
another gas,” said Dr Dhege.