Adrianne reports that no-one was injured in an overnight fire at the school she teaches in, St. Anthony's in Kailua. The damage is still being assessed, but it sounds like the art room and supplies were the hardest hit
"I went to the Art Room for the first time after school today, and it's nearly impossible to describe. All of the lighting either exploded and dropped from the ceiling, or melted down from the ceiling onto the tables and chairs below, melting those in the process. There are many "blessings" though and clearly much to be thankful for -- first, that no one was hurt, and second, that the entire school didn't burn down.
Our school is undergoing a church/school renovation called Project Makawao, and luckily this past summer, all the rooms were rewired and a new fire alarm system was installed. Had these two changes not happened when they did, the damage would have been catastrophic to the entire school and parish campus. Also, some materials miraculously survived. The worst items that were destroyed by the fire were our middle school students' artwork portfolios. That is what Mrs. Chang (art teacher) is most sad about, as well as her three college-student children who each had all of their college textbooks in their mom's classroom.
Mrs. Chang has taught at St. Anthony for years, and had accumulated materials and props for every production our school does, and these were also all burned. Someone mistakingly said to her this morning (at 2 am) "well, at least it wasn't your home," and she told us she said "no, it was my home." According to the chief firefighter, had the fire burned for 4 more minutes, the building would have exploded, and likely caused the next part of the school to burn as well as neighbors' houses.
The situation now is that nothing can be touched, removed, or cleaned in the art room until two things happen -- the Insurance Clearance is given, and the danger is assessed. There is lots of broken glass, and all the plastic that burnt cannot be touched to people's skin because of the chemicals it gives off. This has closed down all of our Music classes, Art classes, after-school program, and kindergarten playground.
I felt the blessing of teaching in a small, caring school community today. Our priest, Father Dennis, said a prayer this morning at assembly, someone had brought Mrs. Chang a sympathy lei, and parents/parishioners stopped by all day to offer help. Since nothing tangible can be done yet, it was nice to be in a place where we could pray out loud for what had happened (which was also very important when Lt. Col. McCloud died) and be surrounded by the "ohana" feeling. "
