Arson ruins school library

Friday’s torching of Sacajawea Middle School’s library was felt beyond the 900 seventh- and eighth-graders left to help pick up the pieces.

“It’s kind of an attack on the community,” said David Leavenworth, a Spokane fire deputy chief. “You think of schools as a safe place, and when something happens – it’s scary.”

The 3:30 a.m. arson fire, fueled by a flammable liquid and books, destroyed the interior of the library, charred thousands of library materials and shattered exterior windows. The fire’s stench wafted through the middle school, an odor officials expected would linger for several days.

No injuries were reported, but classes were canceled because of smoke damage and unsafe carbon monoxide levels throughout the South Hill school, authorities said. Spokane firefighters were able to contain the blaze to the school library.

“As much as it’s a shock,” said Spokane Fire Chief Bobby Williams when he spoke to the school’s staff, “I think we all have to be grateful no one was hurt.”

Authorities said a burglar alarm at the school was tripped about 3:30 a.m. A school resource officer responded and spotted smoke billowing from the building about 10 minutes later and called for help.

Because of Spokane’s dry conditions, firefighters were able to get a pumper truck across a school field and right alongside the library, which enabled them to attack the blaze directly, rather than having to drag hoses and other equipment through the building’s corridors to reach the flames.

When the school’s librarian arrived Friday, she was disturbed and upset by the blaze’s destruction.

“I was very angry someone would try to hurt a school,” Dinah Coble said. “To me that’s right up there with hurting a nursing home. I don’t know why anyone would want to get in the way of us doing good things for kids,” she said.

The school district posted notices about the school closure on its Web site and sent bus drivers along the normal routes Friday morning to inform students at each stop that classes were canceled for the day.

Faculty and staff were asked to meet at the school despite the closure.

Sacajawea Principal Paula Ronhaar spoke to the group gathered in the gym Friday morning.

“We work in an amazing school district,” said Ronhaar, who had to hold on to a chair to steady her trembling body. “Each of you are part of a big family, and we will get through this together.”

The intrusion at Sacajawea was the second this year. In late July, Spokane police responded to the school when somebody broke into the library and attempted to stage a book burning.

“We don’t know if there’s any connection between the previous incident and today’s arson,” Williams said.

Spokane fire investigators don’t have any suspects in Friday’s fire at the middle school.

“It appears someone gained entry to the library from the outside,” Williams said.

The blaze began near a short bookshelf just inside the exterior doors of the library, but an unknown flammable liquid was found in several locations throughout, Williams said.

“It’s a terrible thing that’s happened,” Ronhaar told her staff and faculty. “But like the phoenix, we will come out of the flames and the rubble.”