Story/Photos by BILL SIMPSON

On Monday, October 28th at approximately 11:35hrs, the Cleveland Hill Fire Department was dispatched to a possible structure fire at the Cleveland Hill Elementary School in Cheektowaga, NY - a suburb of Buffalo.

Upon arrival, the first chief on scene reported a working structure fire - and requested a second alarm.

Firefighters from neighboring mutual aid companies including Pine Hill, Rescue, U-Crest, Snyder and Eggertsville companies responded to the scene.

Crews from Pine Hill entered the structure and Chief Ed Dean reported a fire on the 2nd floor had reached into the roof.

Over 1000 students were safely evacuated from the complex, and companies remained on the scene for several hours.

Construction crews had been working on a new addition to the building at the time the alarm was reported.

An investigation of the fire origin is under way.

Ironically, this school was the scene of another fire back in the mid-1950's. The previous fire sparked changes in building safety code updates now in effect throughout the State of New York.