Fire damages Wynot school building; leads to evacuation

WYNOT – A fire on the roof of the Wynot Public Schools building led to the evacuation of students and staff Jan. 26, though the blaze turned out to be minor and no one was injured.

Wynot Fire Chief Todd Pinkelman noted his department responded at about 1:15 p.m. to the report of a fire at the school. Hartington and Fordyce firefighters also responded to the scene.

The fire was extinguished quickly, with Wynot firefighters only on site for about an hour and a half, while the ones from Hartington and Fordyce left sooner than that.

“It was pretty minor,” Pinkelman said.

Firefighters spent most of their time at the scene preventing the flames from spreading or rekindling, and making sure any smoldering hot spots were taken care of.

From what Pinkelman could recall, Wynot used between 250 and 500 gallons of water through two hose lines to put out the fire and was trying to cause as little water damage as possible to the building.

Wynot Superintendent Paul Hans noted the blaze began on the roof of the building near where the gym is located.

“I’m glad it was caught during the day,” he said of the fire, adding there could have been much more damage to the building if the blaze had happened at night.

Pinkelman said snow fell from one part of the roof onto a lower portion in the southeast corner of the building and cracked open a propane line, which was ignited by a nearby vaporizer, a device that heats and turns liquified gas into vapor.

There was damage to a part of the roof’s rubber membrane, which melted due to the fire, and to a part of the exterior of the outside wall of the building and insulation inside the wall, as well as to at least one rooftop air-conditioning unit.

Pinkelman said the propane line that was broken open has been fixed and the part of the roof that was damaged has been temporarily patched up until more permanent repairs can be made this summer.

Students and staff members were evacuated safely from the building, with students being sent to a nearby parish hall to be picked up by their parents in an orderly fashion.

Hans noted students and staff members did an excellent job during the fire and handled the emergency situation just like they practiced during their fire drills.

He also was pleased several of the older students were comforting younger children, especially the ones who were upset and confused by all of the commotion and emergency vehicles.

“It was a cool small-town thing to do,” Hans said, adding the whole situation was “scary for some kids.”

He noted he wanted everyone to feel safe and the building to be good to go as much as possible before they returned for school.

Classes resumed on Jan. 30 at Wynot after a scheduled professional development day for staff members was held on Jan. 29.

Hans encouraged staff members to take time to talk to their students about the emergency situation and make sure their voices were heard before resuming regular studies.