Fire Forces 500 Children to Evacuate School
More than 500 children evacuated Kenmore Elementary School and were taken to a nearby church Friday after fire broke out in the school’s attic.
Seventy firefighters responded to the two-alarm fire at 10 a.m. in the 3800 block of North Kenmore Avenue and extinguished it within an hour.
The cause of the blaze, in an empty classroom wing, has not been determined, said Mike Brown, a Los Angeles County Fire Department spokesman. Damage was estimated at $900,000.
A Baldwin Park Unified School District spokeswoman said the students’ parents were called, and most of the children were picked up and went home early.
The classroom wing was being renovated as part of a district modernization project, officials said.
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