On the night of 9 March 2000 a fire broke out in a girls' dormitory at Motufoua Secondary School. The building's doors had been locked from the outside, in line with the school's policy at the time, and the windows were barred. Nineteen students and one teacher died.
The disaster remains the worst single loss of life in Tuvalu's recent history, and the memorial near the dormitory site — a simple stone with the names of those who died — is one of the more affecting places in the country. The school has long since changed its dormitory policies, and the buildings have been rebuilt, but the event is still part of how Vaitupu understands itself.