Photos: Fire Destroys Historic CO School Building

Jul. 5—The historic former school building in Padroni was lost to fire over the weekend. Sterling Fire Chief Lavon Ritter said a cause has not yet been determined but the investigation is ongoing.

Firefighters responded to a call at about 2:30 p.m. Sunday reporting a structure fire at Pawnee Avenue and McKinley Street in Padroni. At first it appeared that a fire in the building, which was almost fully involved at that point, had started a grass fire nearby. But Ritter told the Journal-Advocate Tuesday that the alarm was first raised by a passerby who told residents of a nearby home that there was a grass fire behind their property. Ritter said it's possible the fire started there and spread to the school, but that hadn't yet been confirmed.

Ritter said the decision was made to try to save surrounding structures.

"The building had fire throughout it and command made the decision to go defensive only," he said. "Crews set up multiple lines to protect surrounding structures, attack the grass fire, and attack the main structure."

Minutes later the school building collapsed. Ritter said firefighters remained onsite for "an extended time" to fully quench the smoldering remains.

A nearby house sustained heavy damage to its plastic siding but there was little other damage, and the school's accompanying gymnasium was saved. A Logan County deputy sheriff was busy making sure there was no one in the building when the wind shifted and within moments, the deputy's vehicle was engulfed in flames.

Two engines from Sterling, one from the state and one from Peetz responded to the fire, along with water tenders from Sterling, Crook, Merino and Peetz.

The holiday weekend was otherwise quiet for the department. Ritter said there were two minor calls for fireworks incidents, but nothing serious..

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