Memorial service to be held on GMIT for fire death students

It will be some weeks before Belgian authorities will be able to establish the cause of the blaze which claimed the lives of two Galway students on placement in Belgium.

The heartbreaking last moments of the lives of Dace Zarina and Sara Gibadlo emerged through accounts by firefighters who reportedly discovered the girls huddled together in a wardrobe in a desperate attempt to escape the wrath of the fire.

Eight other work placement students – all believed to be from Ireland – managed to escape the blaze with the help of neighbours.

Sara, 19, from Oranmore and Dace, 22, from Longford, were in the second year of a Bachelor of Business degree in Hotel and Catering Management in the Galway Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT). They had just begun their 30-week Erasmus programme with the Leuven Institute for Ireland in Europe.

The devastated parents and siblings of Sara and Dace visited the scene of the fire on Saturday, leaving flowers, photographs and notes outside the building.

Their bodies will be repatriated to the countries of their birth – Sara will be buried in Poland while Dace will be laid to rest in Latvia.

The GMIT yesterday opened a book of condolence in memory of the students and an interdenominational service will take place on the main campus later this week to coincide with the burials.

The girls only really got to know each other when they became flat mates in the student city, located 20km east of Brussels.

Head of the College of Tourism and Arts, Cait Noone, described the victims as “bright, creative young girls”.

Sara had attended Calasanctius College in Oranmore and was described by the principal, Mary Nihill, as “a very gentle and beautiful young girl who was very kind”.

She had been living with her parents, Josef and Malgoizaia, twin brother Slawomir and sister Magda,15, in Oranmore, for several years.

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