District plans to reshuffle students to nearby Willow Elementary, Grantsville Jr. High for start of school year

A fire that started in the faculty lounge of Grantsville Elementary School on Monday morning damaged approximately 30 percent of the school’s classrooms and halls, according to Tooele County School District Superintendent Terry Linares. The blaze was caused by a stove burner that was left on but unattended that ignited a stack of paper plates nearby.

Tooele County Dispatch received a 911 call at 9:51 a.m. yesterday from Carol Barton, a secretary at the school who was working there with a few other teachers and custodial staff. No one was in the faculty lounge when the fire started, according to Grantsville Fire Captain Brent Marshall.

Fourth-grade teacher Megan Grover was standing outside of her classroom, just south of the teacher’s lounge, talking with third-grade teacher Holly Lee when the two saw and heard the first signs of the fire.

“We could hear some crackling in the faculty lounge, but didn’t think anything of it,” said Grover. “Then Carol came running out yelling, ‘Fire! Fire!’ and I looked down the hall and it was filling with smoke.”

Both Lee and Grover had their children with them at the school. They quickly got out of the building and also called 911.

The fire had a seven- to 10-minute free burn before crews arrived, where it consumed all the oxygen and any burnable objects in its path, according to Marshall.

The Grantsville City Volunteer Fire Department, located just north of the school, were the first on the scene and were able to contain the fire within two minutes of arriving. Tooele City Fire Department and North Tooele County Fire District also responded to the call.

“Upon arrival there were flames shooting out of the roof and the windows that had been blown out,” said Marshall. “The fire damage was contained to the teacher’s lounge area. But there is smoke and water damage throughout the building.”

The smoke spread to the southwest corner of the building where most of the third-grade classrooms are located, and could be seen pouring out the back windows and doors. The faculty lounge sustained the most damage in the school.

Linares said the district met with risk management advisers and engineers this morning to discuss options for repairing damage and setting a date for students to return to the school.

“The district has dealt with this before when Grantsville High School burned down in 1984,” said Linares. “We’ll make a plan and move forward.”

Although district officials originally hoped students would be able to return to the school on August 24, this morning Linares said students will not be able to occupy the building by the first day of regularly scheduled classes. She plans to meet today and tomorrow with principals and teachers to determine a plan to house classes in nearby Willow Elementary and Grantsville Junior High.

“We’ve got plenty of space and plenty of portables, and we’ll have a plan in place by next week,” Linares said. “I wouldn’t anticipate changing any class time schedules. We plan to maintain the integrity of our current schedule.”

Both Linares and Marshall commented the blaze was quickly contained and could’ve wreaked a lot more havoc than it did. The cost of damages is still unknown, but officials estimate the only room that will need serious repair is the faculty lounge.

“Any firefighter looking at the scene would be very impressed and pleased the responding crews kept the fire from spreading from the point of origin,” said Marshall. “There were structural fire breaks that kept the fire from going across the attic and roof. The only thing that would’ve been better is if we had a sprinkling system here in the school.”

The fire breaks, made of two brick barriers built side by side, contained the initial blaze in the lounge, according to Marshall.

Linares said though most schools in the district have sprinkling systems, Grantsville Elementary does not, since it was built before such systems were mandatory. She plans to work on getting the school a sprinkling system now, however.

News of the fire spread quickly throughout the community, attracting many onlookers, and a few worried teachers, to the scene.

One spectator, 8-year-old Guy Brown, who will be starting his first year at the school as a third-grader this fall, was a little nervous when he heard his new school was on fire.

“I hoped it wasn’t going to burn all the way down,” said Brown. “Now I’m wondering how they’re going to fix it, because you can see the wires and things hanging from the ceilings and walls.”

ntripp@tooeletranscript.com