They emphasized that all government and private schools should have such facilities in order for students and teachers to escape any fire or other accidents.

They were also upset by the fact that many girls had to jump out of the windows to escape the fire on Saturday afternoon.

“When the smoke billowed into the classrooms of upper floors, students did not find any way to exit quickly, except by jumping out through windows,” they said.

Meanwhile, a preliminary report issued by the investigation committee said the school had fulfilled the Civil Defense’s safety conditions.

The committee members questioned some of the school’s teachers and officials and inspected the safety measures put in place.

“Since it was established four years ago, the school has renewed its Civil Defense certificate regularly,” the report said, adding that Baraim is one of the model schools in the city.

The school’s owner had also given her assurance that she would not make any alteration to the building without informing the Civil Defense.

One parent said his daughter is still being treated in a hospital. “I came to school today to inquire about the condition of Abdul Kareem Al-Sindi, in charge of buses who fell ill as a result of inhaling smoke and was taken to hospital. But he returned to school within two hours to take part in the rescue operation.”

A number of witnesses said the delay in the arrival of Civil Defense firefighters had contributed to the chaos as some parents started rescuing their children without waiting for Civil Defense officers to systematically effect the rescue.

Teachers said some citizens had helped them in breaking windows to get students out of the building. “Some students had jumped out through the window from the third floor,” they said. The fire broke out while the students of preparatory classes were leaving the school. A large number of people and vehicles gathered around the school obstructing the entry of Civil Defense vehicles to school premises.

Abussalam Ahmed, an expatriate, said he had seen mothers crying for help to rescue their daughters. Later more police officers were deployed to control the chaos.

Helicopters of the Red Crescent Authority succeeded in landing on the school building to transport injured teachers and students but those of Civil Defense could not land due to the narrow space.

On Sunday, bags of students were found scattered in the school courtyard.

Volunteers who took part in the rescue operations were unanimous in their view about the scanty safety arrangements.

Saturday’s fire is reminiscent of the fire at the Intermediate school 31 in the Hindawiyah district in Jeddah 10 years ago. There were 14 deaths in that fire.

Faisal Al-Ghamdi, one youth who braved the flames to rescue his kindergarten niece, could not keep down his simmering fury at the negligence of school authorities for not keeping the emergency doors ready or at least when the fire started raging.

Al-Ghamdi said he rescued five children in addition to his niece. He wanted to go back to carry more children to the safe locations but he was blocked by the inferno.

He said several relatives of the students managed to rescue their wards after breaking windows or scaling walls.