Mo. School Praise Firefighters For Care Shown at Fire

March 29--CLAYTON -- A fire that apparently started in the attic early Thursday morning damaged a historic building of The Wilson School, a private school on DeMun Avenue.

The school, for pre-kindergarten through sixth grade, is at 400 DeMun Avenue off of Wydown Boulevard in Clayton. Students are on spring break this week.

The cause of the three-alarm fire is under investigation. Authorities don't think it's suspicious. There were storms in the area, and a lightning strike is possible, said Clayton Fire Chief Mark Thorp.

About a third of the school sustained water damage, including to its library at the main entrance. The flames were confined to the roof and attic.

Thad Falkner, the head of school who lives next door, was alerted at about 2:20 a.m. Thursday that the smoke alarms were sounding. He was out front as firefighters were arriving, and flames and heavy smoke were coming from the roof.

About 60 firefighters helped put out the fire. No one was injured. The fire was under control within about 15 minutes, and it was out within an hour, the chief said.

Falkner added: "We don't know exactly the origin, but the fire spread throughout the attic, which runs above our classsrooom spaces, and they (firefighters) had to do significant work to battle the fire."

The firefighters went into the attic and tore a hole in the roof to ventilate it.

Falkner said students were scheduled to return on Monday but, with fire cleanup, he'll have to decide if that's still on track.

The most significant damage was to the older portion of the school, a building that dates to 1916 and is the work of noted architect William B. Ittner. The building was there nearly 50 years before The Wilson School moved in in 1960.

"Our building is possibly his (Ittner's) only arts-and-crafts style school," Falkner said.

The library, which is directly below the spot where the fire destroyed the attic, sustained heavy water damage. However, Falkner said fire crews were careful to try to save some of the books.

"One of the wonderful things fire crews did is, they covered a significant amount of our bookshelves," Falkner said. "They not only fought the fire but they were attentive to trying to be helpful.

"We'll have to replace some of our (book) collection," but Falkner is trying to assess how much needs to be replaced.

The fire chief said that technique, called salvaging, is standard for his crews. He said they used water efficiently, needing only about 500 gallons of water to fight the fire, and that combined with the salvaging effort kept the water damage to a minimum.

The school is gearing up to celebrate a 100-year history next year. A group of Central West End parents started a school for 4-year-olds in 1913. The school moved to its location on DeMun in 1960. The building is considered a historic landmark. About eight years ago, the school underwent an extensive remodeling and built a large addition, including a gymnasium.

The Clayton Fire Department got an assist in fighting the fire this morning from several neighboring departments including St. Louis city, Brentwood, Richmond Heights, University City, Maplewood, Webster Groves, Ladue, Rock Hill, Mid-County Fire Protection District, Creve Coeur, Frontenac, Kirkwood and Affton.

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