Fire breaks out at old North Charleston Elementary
Published Tuesday, July 15th
by Kathy Stevens of the Post and Courier
NORTH CHARLESTON- A late-night fire scorched North Charleston Elementary School on Durant Avenue early today, but for firefighters it was like trying to save a condemned man.
The Park Circle school, one of the oldest in the city, is scheduled to be replaced with a new $13 million school as part of the Charleston County School District's $429 million renovation program. When the school bell rings in August, the students assigned to the school will attend Ron McNair Elementary while their new school is built.
As firefighters from more than a dozen vehicles worked the scene, the advice went out from their commanders: Take no unnecessary risks for a building that's coming down anyway. But as smoke poured from the school's main building after midnight, there was emotion in the crowd of onlookers.
John Bourne III, the son of the former mayor and a past president of the North Charleston Elementary PTA, spoke of the photos he has seen of the school in its early days, back when the streets were unpaved and the big oaks were little saplings. He'd fought to save some of the structure so that the new school will have something of its history.
Bourne, who went to school at North Charleston Elementary from first to sixth grade, suspected that someone set the place on fire. "The school was built 77 years ago," Bourne said. "It has hardwood floors. It's bad enough it's going to be torn down, but now you've got these (people) going in there to burn it down."
The demolition of the building is already under way, and the contractor's website said the new building is scheduled to start going up in November. On Monday, workers took down the basketball hoops, Bourne said.
Much of the smoke seemed to be coming from a third-grade classroom on the second floor of the main building, and firefighters were on the roof inspecting. Fire officials, busy doing their jobs, declined comment.
Photos By S. Jones
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