FULLERTON : Blaze Hits Elementary Classrooms

Orangethorpe Elementary School was going to have a fire drill Monday afternoon, but instead it had the real thing.

No one was hurt during the blaze, but one classroom was gutted and three were damaged by smoke, heat and water during the fire that broke out at 12:15 p.m. in a crawl space between the ceiling and roof, fire officials said.

Students were at lunch, and the four classrooms affected were vacant when the fire began. Students who were in classrooms elsewhere in the school were evacuated without incident, Principal Patrick Backus said.

Fourth-grade teacher Mary Robinson, whose classroom took the brunt of the fire, held back tears and hugged a student as she talked of the $10,000 worth of books, videotapes and computer programs she had bought over the years that were apparently destroyed in the fire.

“She has the best equipped classroom at the school,” counselor Marne Nettinga said.

No cause or damage estimate had been determined late Monday.

Heat from the fire was intense, blackening the grass and trees 30 feet from the classroom.

“By the time we got here, the classroom was fully involved,” said Battalion Chief Eric Newman of the Fullerton Fire Department.

Of her class’s losses, Robinson said: “We just got 10 more books today. I live for my job. The students lost things, too: jackets and notebooks. But my kids all cheered when they saw I had my purse with me. They know Mrs. Robinson’s life is in her purse. They also know my grade book was in the room.”

Bill Moore, assistant superintendent of the Fullerton School District, said that though the district’s insurance does not cover teachers’ classroom fire losses, the district has always reimbursed teachers for their losses out of district funds.

“It’s up to the board (of trustees), but historically that’s been done,” Moore said. In addition, he said that sometimes a teacher’s homeowner’s insurance will cover some away-from-home losses to personal property.

Fifth-grader Ashley Baudisch, 10, who was in Robinson’s class last year, said she and her schoolmates were on the playground when the fire began.

“Everybody started screaming, and I turned around and there was black smoke and fire coming out,” she said. “Flames were everywhere. . . . I’m devastated.”

Principal Backus said the school was 45 minutes away from having its monthly fire drill when the blaze began. When the alarm was pulled, he said, the students gathered on the playground as they have been taught to do.

“I’m not going to lie to you--some of the students were a little upset,” Backus said. “But it’s reassuring that everything went fine.”

He said school will be open today and the displaced students will be taught in the cafeteria.