Published: August 23, 2008 10:58 pm         

Chief: Arson suspected in old Stoco School fire

Flames engulfed and destroyed the original Stoco School building in Lego Saturday in what fire officials called an extremely dangerous arson.

The fire at the abandoned structure located near Odd Road was reported around 9 a.m. Chief Ryan Bragg of the Coal City Volunteer Fire Department said the first and second floors were completely engulfed in flames when firefighters from seven departments arrived on the scene. Part of the third floor was also on fire.

Firefighters could not attack the blaze from the building’s interior because it was falling apart, according to Bragg. The top two floors and some walls collapsed.

Collapsing walls also fell toward the outside, forcing firefighters to regroup and take extra precautions.

A Rhodell firefighter was taken to Raleigh General Hospital, Bragg said. The man was treated for both dehydration and smoke inhalation, and he was expected to be released by the day’s end Saturday.

The blaze took six hours to extinguish, Bragg said. But sometime in the afternoon, falling debris from the old school building caught a nearby wooded area on fire. A second brush fire on Tommy Creek Road, near Rhodell, was unrelated.

The building was a total loss, Bragg said.

Bragg said the cause was apparently arson and that state fire marshals would investigate.

“The building had no power,” he said. “It had to be arson. There’s no (other) way it could have caught fire.”

The original Stoco School, believed to have been built around 1925, had been abandoned about 30 years, Bragg said. The listed owner is Beckley-based Piney Land Co.

The building destroyed Saturday was not the former Stoco school building in Coal City that was converted into a community center following two school consolidations in that area of Raleigh County.

That building was also struck by arsonists in 1990. At the time, it was operational as a junior high. Most of the building was destroyed, with the school’s gym, cafeteria and a building containing five classrooms being spared, but repairs and portable classrooms allowed the school to continue to function.

An 18-year-old from Odd and two 17-year-old juveniles were charged in that arson. The 18-year-old pleaded guilty.

Raleigh County Commissioner John Aliff, a 1957 Stoco High School graduate, said he attended classes in the old Lego building when he was in junior high. At one time, he said, the building had students in kindergarten through 12th grade. When Stoco High School in Coal City was built in 1951 for students in grades 10 through 12, the Lego building became a junior high.

Stoco and Sophia high schools consolidated in 1976 into Independence High School, and the Coal City building was used as a junior high until 1994 when another consolidation formed what is now Independence Middle School.

Aliff said the Lego building was in severe disrepair even before Saturday’s fire.

“It was absolutely falling apart,” he said. “It was very, very bad, with windows broken out. It was in sad, sad shape.

“You never like to see things like this happen, but this unfortunately happens with a lot of old schools. School properties will often go back to the original owner, who will let it deteriorate. I’m really sorry to see this happen.”

The Coal City, Rhodell, Sophia City, Sophia Area, Mullens, Beaver and Ghent volunteer fire departments responded to the scene.

— E-mail: apridemore@register-herald.com