More than 12 hours after the fire at Parkcrest Elementary School broke out, firefighters are still putting out hotspots this morning.
Kamloops Fire Assistant Chief Steve Robinson says the fire is still under investigation, and both the school board and the RCMP will help determine the cause.
He’s urging people to stay away from the school if they don’t need to be there.
“It is still an active fire scene and will remain so for the remainder of today,” he told NL. “And then it will be secured off and we will need people to stay away from the site.”
Robinson says at this time, it’s hard to pinpoint where the fire started, but he noted the building was destroyed in the blaze.
At the peak of the response, there were 10 fire apparatus and over 30 personnel at the scene. The first crews got to the scene within five minutes of the call, when they encountered heavy, dense smoke.
Laurie Uppenborn was one of many neighbours in Brock with connections to Parkcrest Elementary, who were emotional as they watched the school burn down.
“This is such a shame to lose this school because it is a good elementary school,” she said. “My daughter’s a teacher now so she likes teaching here. She’s on call, and she loved coming here to sub. She’s very upset too hearing the news about the school burning down.”
She says she remembers her own school burning down when she was in Grade 12.
“At first you think, ‘Oh, my goodness, the school is burning’ but then you think ‘this is horrible. This is just horrible. Like, why does this happen?’
Area resident Katherine Lovely added the school was in her family for a long time, and points news of the fire spread quickly across the province.
“My daughter that moved to Terrace phoned me and said, “Mom, why didn’t you tell me my school, my kindergarten school was burning?’ So now I’ve had both my children go to this school and one grandchild goes.”
The school housed more than 350 students, who will be out of class today and all of next week. Students will be in an alternate learning space for the week of Sept. 16th.
Kamloops-Thompson Board Chair Kathleen Karpuk was on the NL Morning News today, saying they’ve already got the ball rolling on finding a new home for the displaced students.
“Once the investigation is finished, we will move into the consultation phase to make sure that whatever school we replace it with is going to meet the needs of the neighbourhood and that community,” she said.
– With files from Colton Davies, Bill Cowen, and Jeff Andreas
Video of #Kamloops Parkcrest School Fire, Stage 2, Sep 5, 2019 https://t.co/wis52OZNcy 2 Min of video, surreal to watch – Emotion Alert!
— Mark McVittie (@McVMark) September 6, 2019
