Parents spooked by pupil’s boiler blast death

Several parents in Thessaloniki kept their children at home on Tuesday following the death a day earlier of an 11-year-old boy in Serres, also in northern Greece, from an exploding school boiler.

According to reports in the local media, the decision not to send their children to school was taken by parents of pupils at the 25th Elementary School of Kalamaria after the children were sent home early on Monday because smoke was seen pouring out of the boiler room chimney.

The heating system was shut down for repairs and the municipal authority has provided the school with portable radiators to heat the classrooms, the mayor of Kalamaria, Yiannis Dardamanelis, told reporters on Tuesday.

The 11-year-old boy in Serres was killed when the school’s oil-fired boiler exploded during recess and sent the boiler room’s metal door flying across the playground, where it struck him on the head.

In the meantime, the parents of another six children in Thessaloniki had a fright on Tuesday when the engine of the bus taking them to school started smoking.

The incident occurred on the northern port city’s ring road during the morning commute to school. The children were taken off the bus immediately and no one was injured.