As one of my alert readers mentioned in a comment to another post, Thomas Jefferson School was damaged by fire today. Fortunately, there’s a fire station literally across the street — Fire Station 11. Nevertheless, about $250,000 worth of damage was done according to the Journal Star. Classes will be canceled tomorrow and relocated to Loucks after that. Here’s more info from a District 150 press release:
Sunday Fire Causes School Cancellation for Students At Thomas Jefferson Primary
Students at Thomas Jefferson Primary School will not have school Monday, November 3 due to a Sunday morning fire at the school building. As to not disrupt the learning process and to help our many working families who are inconvenienced by school cancellations, District crews will be working non-stop to prepare the vacant Loucks-Edison building for the Thomas Jefferson students to return to classes on Tuesday, November 4. Classes will continue there until further notice.
Some of our special education students will be relocated to Jamieson and the Developmental Center. Contact with these families will be made on Monday to provide more details.
Starting Tuesday morning, a shuttle bus will be available for students who normally walk to Thomas Jefferson. These students need to be at the front of Thomas Jefferson School until 8:30 a.m. Students will be dropped off at the same location at the end of school, approximately 3:30 p.m. There will be supervision at the bus stop in the morning and afternoon. Parents who normally drop off and pick up are asked to take their student(s) to the Loucks building if possible. All regular bus riders will follow their normal schedules.
Thomas Jefferson staff will need to report to the Loucks-Edison library at 8:30 a.m. on Monday. Staff need to dress casual. Following an informational meeting, they will be setting up classrooms and preparing for the students’ return on Tuesday.
The District notified parents of Monday’s cancellation via the emergency phone system. On Monday, the District Administration will establish a hotline for parent questions and will make frequent updates to the District website, www.psd150.org.
There are currently 470 students enrolled at Thomas Jefferson, including 55 who are part of the special education programs.
“Fortunately, there’s a fire station literally across the street — Fire Station 11. ”
The station has a rescue squad —-no water!!!!!!!!!!!
That’s what I thought, too, but the Journal Star said, “Firefighters from a station across the street from the school quickly extinguished the fire within minutes of arriving….” If they didn’t do it, then which station responded? And how long did it take them to get there?
I live close to TJ and know several folks that work there. The word from them is that the fire fighters from Station 11 were able to ascertain where the fire was isolated and relay that info the the pumper truck and its crew upon their arrival. As best I can remember, the station on Gale (#13, I think?) or the station on Wisconsin (#10, I think?) pick up the slack in this area when there’s a fire. I don’t know response time, though, CJ.
There’s no good reason for Station 11 to be without a pumper truck in my opinion…