Fire Damages Building at Corona High School

English and foreign-language classes had to be held in some unusual places Monday after a suspicious weekend fire damaged a classroom building on the Corona High School campus, authorities said.

“One classroom was gutted, two were heavily damaged (by fire), and five were heavily damaged by smoke,” school Principal David Miller said. “. . . The students are really upset, really upset.”

During each class period, about 250 students were sent to temporary classrooms in the cafeteria, the library, a theater and even the gymnasium, Miller said.

The heat from the blaze, which was first reported at 12:42 a.m. Saturday, was so intense that it melted and warped steel girders that make up the building’s framework and caused “moderate to heavy” smoke damage throughout the building, said Battalion Chief Ben Blair of the Corona Fire Department.

City fire officials estimated damage to be at least $175,000. “I think that’s a very conservative estimate,” Miller said, adding that “it will be a couple of months before we have use of all eight of those rooms again.”

One of the classrooms was used as a career counseling center, the others for English and foreign language courses, Miller said.

The most tragic losses in the fire cannot be reflected in damage cost estimates because teachers left many personal materials--class photos, student artwork and other memorabilia--in their classrooms, Miller said. “One teacher had things there from 15 years . . . stuff you just can’t replace.”