GILGIL, Kenya — A devastating overnight blaze broke out at a public girls’ boarding school in central Kenya early Thursday, leaving multiple people dead and others injured, as emergency crews and law enforcement teams continue working to locate every student and staff member unaccounted for. The fire ignited in the student dormitory block at Utumishi Girls School, located roughly 120 kilometers northwest of Kenya’s capital city Nairobi, in the Gilgil region. Local police confirmed they are heading up the multi-agency rescue and emergency response operation that launched immediately after the fire was reported. As of Thursday afternoon, officials have not released an official, confirmed count of casualties. An initial internal government incident assessment has placed the death toll at a minimum of 15, with dozens of injured people already transported to nearby regional hospitals for urgent medical care. The exact origin and cause of the fire remain under active investigation, with no preliminary conclusions shared by authorities as of press time. Tragic school dormitory fires are a persistent, recurring crisis across Kenya’s boarding school system. Past blazes have been linked to a range of causes, from malicious arson attacks to unaddressed faulty electrical wiring that creates fire hazards in aging campus buildings. The deadliest school fire in Kenya’s recent modern history occurred in 2001, when a dormitory blaze in Machakos County claimed the lives of 67 sleeping students. Just this year, in 2024, another deadly fire at a central Kenya boarding school killed 21 students, prompting President William Ruto to declare a national three-day period of mourning for the victims. Prior deadly incidents include a 2017 Nairobi school fire that killed 10 students, which ended in a student being charged with murder in connection with the blaze.