Oklahoma Christian students recount their night as firefighters in Tanzania

Oklahoma Christian University students smile alongside children in Tanzania. (Photo provided)

Carla Hinton, religion editor for the Oklahoman, spotlights summer mission trips, including one taken by Oklahoma Christian University students to Chimala Mission Hospital and Schools in Tanzania.
(See our earlier blog post about the fire mentioned here.)

Nick Poulos, 21, an OC junior, said a fellow OC student wondered where the fire fighters were.
“She said she thought ‘Where are the firemen?’ and then she realized that we are the firemen,” Poulos said.
Langford and Poulos said the girls who lived in the dormitory had been elsewhere so they knew no one was in danger of being injured. However, Langford said losing the dormitory and its contents to fire would be catastrophic for the school and village so the OC students joined with about 100 Tanzanians to put out the fire.
A bucket brigade was soon formed to transport water from a creek about 50 yards away, Langford said.
“It took us three hours and we saved half of the building,” he said. “It was a pretty amazing experience.”

Flames engulf a girls dormitory at Chimala Mission. (Photo provided)