The Goldendale Sentinel, Goldendale, WA., December 11, 1980, page 1
Includes photograph

GLENWOOD FIRE BURNS DOWN MAIN STRUCTURE

     A fire swept through most of Glenwood School last Thursday night destroying two classrooms, a lunchroom and office. It also leveled the school's gymnasium.
     Much of what was left standing was affected by smoke damage.
     Glenwood's volunteer fire department answered an alarm at about 10:45 p.m. according to Clint Hilman, Klickitat County fire marshal. The fire probably started sometime around an hour before then since the last people to use the building left around 9:45 p.m., he said.
     Fire departments from Glenwood and Trout Lake fought the blaze, halting its progress about midnight, said Hilman. Crews made the right decision in trying to save the building's wings, rather than spread their force on both of those and the gymnasium, he added.
     "There was no stopping it in the gym -- nobody could've the way the school was constructed. With all the equipment in the world, I think they would have had problems. If they tried to save everything, they probably would have lost everything. They did a super job with the equipment and men they had to contain the fire in that building."
     Cause of the fire was still under investigation last Monday, but Hilman said it apparently originated in a corridor outside the girls' locker room. "I'm not saying anything conclusive," he said. "From the burn pattern and the evidence we have, it appears to have started there." A possible starting point may have been in a waste receptacle in the corridor.
     Neither the school's wood-frame gym, which was the oldest structure on campus, nor the main school building were up to present fire codes since they were built before regular codes went into effect, said Hilman. Flames spread along finishes in the corridor, but there were no sprinkler systems to halt the fire's advance, said Hilman.
     Crews stayed at the burned-out-out school until 3:30 a.m. with some residents remaining all night to watch over the still-smoking rubble. A preliminary estimate of damage to the school is around $500,000, said Hilman.
     However, Francis Bean, the school's board chairman and spokesman, said Tuesday morning he was not prepared to give a damage estimate, saying the school's insurance adjuster had not visited the site yet. The only parts of the gym to escape the direct damage from the fire were the furnace room and five classrooms, but added that these still suffered some smoke damage.
     School records were not damaged in the fire, since they are protected in a fireproof vault, according to Hilman.
     Glenwood's school board met in an emergency session to find other facilities where classes might be continued. It appears the grade school would be held in area churches and space made available from the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the St. Regis Lumber Co., according to Bean.
     The school board plans to meet again next Tuesday to determine where high school classes will be held.

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©  Jeffrey L. Elmer