Damage Limited From Early Morning Fire at Aquinas College
A fire that started just past midnight Thursday morning gutted a boiler room at St. Thomas Aquinas College near Ojai, officials said.
The blaze caused an estimated $200,000 in damage, but firefighters were able to contain it in the college’s boiler room, where it apparently started, a Ventura County Fire Department spokeswoman said. No one was injured.
Firefighters from the Ventura city and Santa Paula fire departments joined county firefighters in battling the two-alarm blaze, the spokeswoman said.
College spokesman John Holecek said the college’s cafeteria also suffered water damage but a fire wall kept the flames in the boiler room.
Holecek could not say how long it would take to repair the damage, but school officials are scrambling to find a new location for a fund-raiser planned for this weekend.
“It’s not a major disaster but it will be a major headache dealing with the damage,” he said. “I’m very thankful the fire was contained.”
Over the summer only about 30 students remain on campus to work. The rest of the student body arrives about Sept. 5, Holecek said.
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