Superintendent H.O. Belford said arrangements will be made for pupils to attend classes elsewhere beginning Monday. The school board will meet tonight to consider plans for rebuilding and for housing the pupils during the interim. Marion firemen were aided by firemen from Johnston City in fighting the blaze which was discovered in the furnace room about 1 am. A fire truck from Herrin stood by at the Marion station while Marion’s two pumpers were at the fire.
The blaze appeared to be confined to the basement when the firemen reached the building. Firemen who entered the building were forced out as the fire spread. Five lines of hose were used in fighting the blaze until nearly 6 am. By that time the two-story, 10-room brick structure had been reduced to a pile of rubble.
Only fragments of the brick walls were left standing and they were pulled down by firemen as a safety precaution. At one time it appeared that firemen were making headway against the fire in the basement but it burned upwards into a room over the furnace room where it was spurred by a draft, and spread into the upper portion of the building. The open stairway acted as a chimney for the flames as they raged through the ground floor rooms to the second floor.
Streams of water were ineffective against the fury of the fire which rapidly ate its way through the class rooms and corridors, destroying desks, book cases, floors and interior walls before it brought the roof crashing down with an impact that sent sparks high into the early morning sky. Sections of the wall tumbled down.
Concrete fire escapes which had been added to the sides of the building after it was built remained standing, each supporting a section of brick wall. Eugene Morrison, president of the school board said no estimate of replacement value of the building was available. Replacement cost at present prices is estimated at $200,000. The building and contents were insured for $37,500.
The building was constructed in 1908 at a cost of $16,000. Since that time, however, many improvements had been added from time to time. A $20,000 repair and improvement program was underway this year. Electricians and plumbers were working in the building Wednesday.
School board members said that an architect was under contract to appraise the school buildings, but had not made his reports at the time of the fire. An effort was being made Thursday to determine the fire’s origin.
The fire was discovered by Mrs. Carlene Staudacher, 605 E. Carter Street. Mrs. Staudacher saw the blaze in the basement when her husband returned home at 1:05 am from his work on the night shift at Peabody Mine #43. After admitting her husband she was attracted by a light at the school which she first thought was the glare from an automobile headlight. “Within a matter of seconds,” Mrs. Staudacher said, “the fire seemed to break out of the basement.”
Staudacher and a group of other miners had driven by the school only minutes before without seeing the blaze. After the fire was sighted from his home and the alarm turned in, he ran to the school building and was there when the firemen arrived.
The disaster was the first serious school fire in Marion since 1928 when the Douglas school was badly damaged. George Wise, school janitor, did not learn of the fire until he arrived early Thursday to begin his day’s work and found the building destroyed.
(Extracted from local newspapers and compiled by Harry Boyd, posted at http://www.marionfire.us )