School Gets New Home As Blaze Probed

As the education authorities agreed today to a plan to accommodate hundreds of pupils whose school was destroyed by a weekend fire, a PSNI probe into suspected arson has begun.

It happened on Saturday, at Whitehouse Primary School – at the bottom of the Doagh Road in Newtownabbey - and was discovered shortly after 2.30am.

Those tackling the fire saw that a number of different areas of the school were alight, leading to suspicions the fire had been set.

Nearby homes had to be evacuated for a time as strong winds fanned flames towards the properties and a local funeral parlour.

Seventy firefighters and more than 20 appliances were tasked to deal with the outbreak - which still saw the school being almost completely destroyed.

However, by lunchtime on Monday - less than two days after the fire - all 350 students from the primary school were being offered classrooms in a nearby school.

The Whitehouse pupils will be hosted in a vacant wing of nearby Newtownabbey Community High School from next term.

The plan to accommodate them was agreed at a meeting today between representatives of both schools and senior officials of the North Eastern Education and Library Board.

Meanwhile, last week's blaze at the derelict La Salle Boys' School on the Glen Road in west Belfast – which was reported to police at 9.30pm on Thursday – is also being treated as suspicious, police have said.

The PSNI have appealed for anyone who noticed any unusual activity around the derelict property to contact them.

Fire crews have also been busy elsewhere across Northern Ireland this past weekend.

Most recently, they were called to a fire at a recycling facility on the Benburb Road in Moy, Co Armagh, on Sunday where a 200m exclusion zone and road closures were put in place.

An investigation into the cause has since been launched after crews found a shed on the premises was alight.

Two gas cylinders were removed and submerged in water to cool them down.

(BMcC/KMcA)