Haskell school burned in separate fires hours apart
HASKELL − It could have been worse.
"We got lucky on this one," Haskell Consolidated Independent School District Superintendent Lonnie Hise said Wednesday.
He stood at the corner of what had been the high school's original cafeteria, surveying the scorched corner of the roof that caught fire early Tuesday morning.
A fire had spread from nearby stacked pallets. As the flames licked the edge of the building, they caught the corner on fire and began burning a refrigeration unit. Firefighters contained the fire to this one spot, and the rest of the school building remained unharmed.
Someone then noticed smoke rising from the other side of campus, near the football field. A former fieldhouse that served as storage and the locker room for visiting football teams also was on fire.
Hise, who had ben on campus watching firefighters put out the first blaze since around 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, said this next fire began at 4:30 a.m.
"Our fire department, they were here fighting this fire, and then as we were leaving we saw smoke billowing out of this place," he said. "Smoke was everywhere in this thing."
It was the third fire that night, the first being located at a nearby church.
Hise didn't have an estimate of the damage, saying the insurance company would come Thursday to make its assessment.
As for the school facilities, he said the district will make do. Haskell won't have another home varsity game for two weeks, but the junior high team is scheduled to play Thursday. He said they'll put opposing players in the varsity dressing room for now.
When varsity play returns, visiting teams likely will use the locker rooms in the nearby gymnasium.
Spectators also will be redirected to other restrooms as the building supplied that for the stadium as well.
"We're just thankful that nobody's hurt, and we're thankful for our police department and our fire department," Hise said. "They both did a bang-up job helping us out on this."
This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Haskell school picking up the pieces after multiple fires
