Blaze guts classrooms

KAHULUI - Fire gutted three classrooms in "G" Building at Kahului Elementary School early Sunday, forcing officials to scramble for space and supplies to allow displaced teachers and students to hold classes today.

The fire reported at 12:57 a.m. also affected a fourth classroom that sustained minor fire, smoke and water damage. A fifth room had no damage but was left with a smoky smell.

This morning, approximately 125 3rd- and 4th-graders and their teachers will be moved to other classrooms on campus.

"There's nothing left in these rooms," Principal Fern Markgraf said Sunday afternoon as an acrid smell of smoke hung in the air and she fought tears while looking at the three charred classrooms in "G" Building. "Nothing left."

Amy Nakashima, chairperson of the 3rd-grade level at Kahului School, lost everything in the classroom she had used to teach children for most of her 27-year career.

"I nearly flipped," Nakashima said. "I've never seen anything like this."

Mandy Sasada, another 3rd-grade teacher two doors down from Nakashima, said she was shocked by the damage of the fire, which was so intense that it melted metal roofing beams and plastic chairs.

"The displacement of it all, I feel lost," Sasada said.

Sasada predicted that her students would express sadness this morning. She also expects her group of 8-year-olds to be confused."They're not going to understand it," she said Sunday night.

Nakashima took the losses in stride.

"It's just things, and they can be replaced," she said. "Everybody's safe, and the kids are so young they can adjust and make the changes that need to be made."

Markgraf said she was called almost immediately after firefighters showed up at the school at 1:02 a.m. The fire was under control a half-hour later and officially extinguished at 4:17 a.m., according to acting Battalion Chief Rory Macadangdang.

Structure losses, according to Macadangdang, were estimated at $450,000 and the contents at $50,000. Kahului and Wailuku engine companies as well as the rescue and hazardous materials teams from the Kahului station assisted in responding to the fire.

The cause remains under investigation.

Markgraf said the "G" building, located on the Maui High side of the grade school on Hina Avenue, has been subjected to vandalism, such as grafitti, in the past.

Nakashima said she suspected earlier this school year that there was an attempted break-in to her classroom located at the far end of "G" building because she found that louvers had been bent.

On Sunday, the Kahului School staff and volunteers, including a group from the Valley Isle Fellowship Church in Wailuku, started making arrangements for temporary classrooms for the displaced students and teachers.

Markgraf said she planned to move the students and teachers into rooms that normally would be used primarily for supplemental programs such as music and English as a second language.

Nakashima, for example, was assigned to a space that an extra tutorial program and the school's curriculum coordinator share. Sasada, meanwhile, was told she would have to share a portable building with one of the English as a Second Language classes.

The supplemental programs, meanwhile, will have to double or triple up in one room, and/or provide services at the regular classrooms their students meet in. Markgraf said she believes the space adjustments will have to do for the rest of the school year unless an alternative can be found.

Student desks that had been delivered for next school year were taken out of boxes in the school cafeteria and placed into the temporary classrooms. Teachers not affected by the fire were offering their displaced colleagues classroom supplies such as pencils, paper and tablets.

Markgraf said donations of any and all school supplies would be appreciated and can be dropped off at her office.

The principal also wrote a letter to all parents and guardians of the 995 students at Kahului Elementary, telling them about the fire and the school's plans to continue.

"The loss of all the students' materials, textbooks and technology equipment may have students go through the grieving process," Markgraf wrote. "Please let your child talk about his or her feelings. Counselors are available at the school if you feel your child needs assistance in dealing with the loss."

Markgraf said the students directly affected would be afforded the chance to look at the charred rooms from a distance and behind the taped barriers authorities set up around the building.

Markgraf said she's thankful that an alert neighbor called 911 early Sunday morning and grateful for the fast response by police and firefighters.

"We thank them for the hard work and efforts to save Building G and keep the fire from spreading," Markgraf said.

Markgraf said she learned that the school's buildings have fire walls between every three classrooms.

"Otherwise we could have lost more," she said.

A separate fire, according to Macadangdang, was reported at 12:14 p.m. Saturday at Door of Faith Church property in Haiku. A storage shed on the back side of the church was burned, with damage estimated at $3,000. Losses included lawn mowers, generators and tools in the shed.

The fire was extinguished at 1:41 p.m. by a crew from Paia Fire Station and tanker 10 from Kahului, Macadangdang said. The cause of that fire also was undetermined.

* Claudine San Nicolas can be reached at claudine@mauinews.com.