Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

PHS Heavily Damaged In Blaze

Classes at Prescott High School have been cancelled and will remain so on a day-to-day basis.

Fire destroyed a section of the main building Monday night, resulting in the cancellation of classes.

According to Nevada County Sheriff Harold Vines, the fire was reported to the Sheriff's Office at 10:36 p.m. by Danny Glass.

When officials arrived, the building was in flames, and a door on the south side of the building, by the football field, was found broken and open by officers with the Prescott Police Department.

Firefighters from Prescott, Laneburg, Emmet and Rosston joined together to fight the blaze, which destroyed the principal's office completely, along with a computer lab. Several other rooms were heavily damaged by the fire, including the auditorium and band room.

The roof above the foyer collapsed under the heat and flames.

Don Johnston, superintendent of the Prescott School District, called his administrators together at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday to decide how to continue having classes.

He said it is hoped students can remain on the same block, by utilizing other areas of PHS and Prescott Elementary School. Otherwise, the district will have to contact other people to use their facilities for classes.

At the scene Monday night, PES Principal Howard Austin said five to seven rooms could be made available at his facility for PHS students.

Additionally, a section of the agriculture building, gymnasium, field house, the old gym and the student lounge could be utilized as classroom space for students.

Johnston said the Arkansas State Police is sending a criminal investigator to the scene Tuesday to examine the fire and see if a cause can be determined.

Vines said a CID officer with the ASP was at the scene Monday night, but couldn't make any type of determination. This is because, Vines said, there was so much foam and water it was hard to see.

In fact, an street on the south side of the building was still covered with foam, while bottles of dishwashing detergent littered the ground.

According to Vines, one or two people were seen leaving PHS about the time of the fire. These subject are wanted for questioning.

Several coaches were at the field house shortly before the fire began, because a track meet had been held earlier in the day for the seventh and eighth grade teams. This meet had been out of town.

Johnston said the school's insurance adjuster was coming in Tuesday to examine the damage done, while the architect who designed the building was flying in as well.

Fortunately, fire was contained in the east side of the building, and the western half sustained only smoke and water damage. Any other damages to this section were not known as of press time. The western half contains 12 classrooms and the school's media center.

"I hope we find something to determine the cause (of the fire)," Vines said. "We were lucky no one was hurt."

Vines commended the work done by the fire departments, saying they did a "super job."

To secure the scene, the sheriff posted a deputy at PHS after all others had left around 1:30 a.m.

Tuesday morning, members of the faculty and staff were on hand to see the damaged building. PPD Chief Willie Latin strung additional security tape around the front of the PHS building to keep onlookers out.

Interior walls and ceilings were still unstable, and officials did not want to take the chance of having anyone get hurt by going inside.

Officials also wanted to preserve any evidence which may be left, and did not want people milling around in the building.

Vines said no one will be allowed to remove anything from the building until authorities have examined everything inside for possible evidence.