June 6, 2007

By John R. Moses/ Frontiersman

TALKEETNA - Heavy equipment crunched into the remains of Susitna Valley Jr./Sr. High School Wednesday morning as smoldering debris was dragged into the parking lot and hosed down under Principal Matt Clark's watchful eyes.

Photo courtesy of Ashley Evans Flames rip through Susitna Valley Jr./Sr. High School Tuesday night. Witnesses reported smoke in the area about 7 p.m. Tuesday, and the fire continued to burn into the night. The building and its contents are a total loss. Mat-Su Borough spokesperson Peggy Sullivan totaled the losses at $13.23 million for the building and $691,000 for the contents, not counting the $5.5 million roof renovation project scheduled for completion in the fall.

Clark was also present the night before, watching as the 34-year-old wooden complex went up in flames over three agonizing hours. He said then that it was sad more could not have been salvaged from the building.

Wednesday he surveyed the aftermath and spoke with community residents who gathered at the police line on the school's driveway to pay their respects to or satisfy their curiosity about the fate of a school that served as a community hub and also the Red Cross emergency shelter.

The building and its contents are a total loss.

Borough spokesperson Peggy Sullivan totaled the losses at $13.23 million for the building and $691,000 for the contents, not counting the $5.5 million roof renovation project scheduled for completion in the fall.

It was on the roof or just under it that the blaze is thought to have started, although fire officials and the state fire marshal are investigating.

The borough's emergency services coordinator was unavailable at press time, recovering from a marathon stint managing what might be the largest structure fire in recent borough history.

Light smoke, then an inferno

The school's janitor made a final check around 3:30 p.m. and construction crews were due to knock off at 4:30 p.m. The crews were renovating the school's roof, and nothing seemed amiss at the campus on this summer vacation day.

Talkeetna resident Scott Hudson noticed light smoke coming from the area of the school before 7 p.m. Tuesday and pulled in to investigate. He saw what appeared to be a small fire.

At about that time, Talkeetna Fire Chief Kenneth Farina was in a meeting at a nearby fire station. His wife, Mary, came in to tell him someone appeared to be burning trash at the high school, and it was a no-burn day.

“I was going to chew out the contractor,” the chief said. “When I got there I saw fire.”

By 7 p.m. the regional dispatch center was deluged with calls. What seemed small and limited to the central roof of the structure quickly became an inferno. Farina radioed that if a tanker was not dispatched soon they could “lose the whole building.”

That turned out to be prophetic.

More than 20 fire units rushed to the scene. Mary Farina guided traffic flow as Farina went to work with Talkeetna's volunteers on what would stretch his day into a 29-hour shift.

Every fire department except Sutton and Houston sent firefighters and Houston and the Alaska State Troopers also sent law enforcement officers. A caravan of water tankers kept the supply coming. A State Department of Forestry helicopter fitted with a bucket made dozens of water drops from a nearby lake.

Some spectators settled in on stacks of construction materials in to parking lot set there for the roof renovation project.

Others, on the east side of the campus spent time putting out spot fires from embers carried by gusts of up to 20 mph. Some grabbed water bottles set out for firefighters and borrowed shovels to put out embers smoldering in the peat-like soil of a hillside bordering a forest.

Fire crews put out two fires in the trees from falling embers.

A lost cause

Farina said there was initially some optimism about saving the east and west wings of the school. One held the music room and shop class, a room filled with tanks of explosive gases and wood. The other wing held lockers, school records and classrooms.

The fire had its own plans, and as the gymnasium began collapsing the fire spread under the eaves of the east wing, eventually igniting its flammable contents.

To the west, crews got on the roof to vent the structure as others went inside with hoses to try and save the school office. The computer lab was ablaze before 9 p.m. Unseen flames sent black, brown and greenish smoke from the area of the chemistry labs out from under the eaves in part of that wing.

The music room to the east had collapsed by 10 p.m. when Farina said “The decision was made collectively to get them off the roof,” and fight a defensive battle.

“We didn't want anyone to get hurt,” he said.

One file cabinet of school records was saved.

The state fire marshal's investigation is ongoing and investigators were still on scene Wednesday night, as were fire crews. A burn ban remains in place, as fire crews from many areas are still helping out in the Talkeetna area.

Talkeetna businesswoman Geri Denkewalter, whose husband Eric is the assistant fire chief, said it was sad to lose a building that held so many memories for the community.

“More than half of our volunteer fire department graduated from Su Valley, “ she said.

Denkewalter said she was heartened by how the community pulled together. Locals grabbed fire extinguishers and shovels to put out spot fires. Tanner's Trading Post contributed sent off food and drinks for firefighters and The Talkeetna Roadhouse piled baked good into bags.

Two people from Tennessee, she said, volunteered to direct traffic and help with odd jobs.

Contact Frontiersman reporter John R. Moses at 352-2270.