Old Mount Hope Middle School destroyed by fire

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September 20, 2006

Amelia Pridemore The Register-Herald Wed Sep 20, 2006, 11:41 PM EDT

An early morning blaze destroyed the old Mount Hope Middle School Wednesday, and fire officials deemed the blaze suspicious.

Mount Hope Fire Chief Shane Wheeler said firefighters arrived on the scene around 5 a.m. Wednesday and found the second floor of the three-story building fully engulfed. Mount Hope police informed the firefighters that young people had been known to sleep inside the building, and firefighters immediately began an “aggressive search” of areas inside that were not fully engulfed, Wheeler said. No one was found inside.

While firefighters continued to fight the fire, the third floor collapsed onto the second, and the second later collapsed onto the ground floor, Wheeler said.

At that point, firefighters concentrated on an exterior attack. The fire was under control around 9 a.m.

The middle school’s building was part of a three-building campus which also contains a building used as a community center, Wheeler said. Neither of the other two buildings was damaged.

The fire has been deemed suspicious in nature because the building had been unoccupied for about two years and numerous small fires had broken out there in the past, Wheeler said. Most started in garbage cans. Young people gained access to the building and set fires, and vagrants once set a barrel on fire to keep warm.

Wheeler said concerns about that had been voiced to the Fayette County Board of Education several times because the building was not secured as it should have been.

The investigation has been turned over to the state fire marshal’s office, which will make the official determination of the fire’s cause, Wheeler said.

Wheeler praised the cooperation between the four departments that responded — Mount Hope, Oak Hill, Pax and Bradley-Prosperity.

Fayette Schools Superintendent Chris Perkins thanked the responding fire departments on behalf of the board for their timely response and their efforts in battling the blaze that destroyed the building constructed in 1929.

Perkins encouraged people to stay away from the fire scene because it was the site of an ongoing investigation. He noted those who compromise the scene could possibly be charged with interfering with an investigation, and they risk serious injury.

“The bottom line is that it is a potential crime scene, and the main thing is everyone’s personal safety,” he said.

Regarding the building’s security, Perkins said maintenance workers had worked in a timely manner to better secure doors and windows or repair broken ones when there were reports of people entering.

However, he noted it was not uncommon for unoccupied buildings to be vandalized.

The board could not provide 24-hour security for the building.

Also, as soon as something was repaired, something else was broken soon thereafter, often by vandals, Perkins said.

He said the building’s shell most likely would have to be taken down.

“We just discussed this property the other night at the board meeting,” he said. “The mayor (Michael Martin) was there, saying the city would like to have the building.

“At this point in time, we have other concerns. Right now, I’m looking at it and there’s probably not a lot we can do with it except tear it down.”

Cheryl Keenan of The Fayette Tribune contributed to this story.

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

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Old Mount Hope Middle School destroyed by fire

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