2 Classrooms Destroyed in $500,000 Fire : Simi Valley: A faulty clock at Park View Elementary School sparks the blaze. About 130 first- and second-graders will be displaced.

Fire destroyed two classrooms and heavily damaged two others at a Simi Valley elementary school early Sunday, causing a loss estimated at $500,000, authorities said.

Investigators determined that a malfunctioning clock caused the blaze at Park View Elementary School, 1500 Alexander St., said Jackie Noel, a dispatcher for the Ventura County Fire Department. Noel said two firefighters suffered minor injuries fighting the fire.

About 130 first- and second-grade pupils--more than a fifth of the school’s approximately 620 students--will be displaced because of the fire.

The students will be taught in the school’s library, computer lab or in two special-education classrooms during the five weeks remaining in the school year, Principal Rob Hunter said.

“Services to the kids won’t be interrupted in any way,” Hunter said. “We’ll just change the way we deliver the services.”

Park View was not scheduled to be used for summer classes.

The fire swept through one of five four-classroom wings at the school, one of the largest of the Simi Valley Unified School District’s 19 elementary schools, Supt. John Duncan said.

“The fire was so hot, it even buckled the outside walls . . . we may have to do a total demolition and build a new wing.”

Hunter said the fire in the clock was a “freak thing” but that similar clocks will be inspected.

“Evidently the clock had been smoldering for quite a while,” Hunter said. “If we had been in session we probably wouldn’t have had . . . near the damage we had.”

Fire officials said seven engines, two trucks and 35 firefighters were needed to put out the fire, which was reported by a neighbor at 2:15 a.m. and was extinguished by 6:37 a.m.