Published: May 23, 2009 07:53 am      

Irving classroom damaged by fire

The cause of a small fire in an unoccupied Irving Elementary School classroom is under investigation by the Cleburne Fire Department.

All three of the department’s engine companies responded to an alarm from the campus shortly after 1 p.m. Friday. According to investigators from the fire marshal’s office, the fire began in a corner of the school’s art room.

Irving Principal Dr. Juanita Reyes and her staff immediately began evacuation of the building as soon as the fire alarm sounded. Fifth graders were at Cleburne High School at the time, participating in the Little Jacket Relays.

“We were also conducting play day at our campus for the other grades, so we had very few students inside the school at the time,” Reyes said. “We did have our afternoon pre-kindergarten students in class and they were evacuated. We also moved our students involved in play day activities from the side of the building where the fire occurred.”

Students were allowed back into the school building around 2:45 p.m.

Superintendent Dr. Ronny Beard credited the quick action of the fire department and clean-up efforts by district and campus custodial crews in keeping damage to a minimum.

“There was a lot of water, with the sprinkler system going off,” Beard said. “But our custodial crews did a great job of getting the water up quickly. We may have one wall damaged and that may be it, although we have no idea of actual damage at this point.”

The district’s maintenance crew, with Irving custodians, was scheduled to work through the weekend on cleanup to the art room and neighboring classrooms, which are located on the kindergarten wing. Beard said that all alarms and sprinklers will also be reset in time for the return of students to school on Tuesday. All CISD campuses are closed Monday in observance of Memorial Day.