Texas Elementary School Burns, Collapses
Source The Beaumont Enterprise, Texas
March 18--Twelve fire departments responded to the Hamshire-Fannett Elementary School, including three city departments and eight volunteer departments, said Jefferson County Sheriff's deputy Rod Carroll, who was on the scene of the fire by 1:40 a.m. today.
Carroll said he was helping to hold a fire hose for the first units that responded as more departments arrived.
"It was an older structure and when that fire got into the ceiling, it started rolling," Carroll said. "We evacuated the building and the firefighters got out and fought it from the outside."
The fire began around 1 a.m. and firefighters extinguished it by 5 a.m., Carroll said.
By mid-morning, firefighters were mopping up hot spots, he said.
Meanwhile, Hamshire-Fannett administrators were meeting to decide a course of action.
A total of 57 firefighters were at the fire. Charles Sonnier, chief of the LaBelle-Fannett Volunteer Fire Department is the incident commander because the school is within the LaBelle-Fannett VFD jurisdiction.
The school's address is 23395 Burrell-Wingate Road, near Texas 124.
Other departments responding include Hamshire VFD, Winnie-Stowell VFD, Emergency Services District No. 3 (China and Nome), Bevil Oaks VFD, Sour Lake VFD, Pine Ridge VFD and Lumberton VFD.
City departments include Port Neches, Nederland and Beaumont.
A fire hydrant was directly in front of the school, Carroll said. Another hydrant farther down Burrell-Wingate Road allowed tanker trucks holding anywhere from 2,500 gallons to 5,000 gallons to fill up and bring back to the fire, Carroll said.
Firefighters suffered no serious injuries other than exhaustion and one smoke inhalation, treated on the scene, Carroll said.
"We work together on a regular basis," Carroll said, referring to the volunteer departments' coordination.
A state fire marshal is supposed to arrive today to begin an investigation, Carroll said.
The school building partially collapsed because of the fire and Hamshire-Fannett administrators canceled classes at all campuses today.
Copyright 2014 - The Beaumont Enterprise, Texas
