Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Jill Sperling

PARKCREST FIRE

KFR previously called to Parkcrest Elementary for reports of fires

Dec 17, 2019 | 5:03 PM

KAMLOOPS — Kamloops Fire Rescue has not been able to pinpoint the exact cause of the fire that destroyed Parkcrest Elementary one week into the school year.

However, KFR is now working with School District 73 to prevent such an incident from happening again.

The Parkcrest fire was started in the northwest corner of the school between the drop ceiling and roof above four classrooms.

“In that concealed space, the possible ignition sources would have been electrical or parts of the HVAC system,” said Fire Inspector Kevin Cassidy.

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According to Cassidy, KFR had attended other fire incidents at Parkcrest, in the same area as the fire that destroyed the building in September.

“We had a couple reports in previous years of small fires in that area,” he said.

SD73 Superintendent of Schools Alison Sidow says the incidents were not fires.

“One was an electrical short and the other was a ceiling tile that fell,” she said, “and so we have not deemed those as fires nor did the fire department at the time when they were called. But, there were mitigations put in place. Of course, safety measures are always the top priority. Our maintenance department had dealt with them and they were concluded.”

KFR had a meeting with district officials last week to discuss safety recommendations for other schools.

“The considerations they asked us to think through were whether or not we needed to use this as an opportunity to bring awareness around fire prevention, both for our students and for our staff,” Sidow said. “So, we will be looking at doing audits in a couple of our schools, with KFR and their safety officer, in order to determine if there are things that we could do to reduce the risk of fire in the future.”

A working sprinkler system has been identified by KFR as one tool that could have helped contain the fire that quickly destroyed Parkcrest Elementary.

“It would have been possible for the sprinkler suppression system to contain the fire to that area, to those initial rooms where the fire initially dropped through from the concealed space into the classroom,” Cassidy said. “If you had an effective sprinkler system, it would have possibly contained the fire to those rooms and given our firefighters a better opportunity to contain the fire to that area.”

Sidow says there is a schedule to put sprinklers into all of the district’s schools. She adds they are also looking into heat sensors for void spaces.

“That will take time and it will take significant dollars, we’re talking millions of dollars to accomplish this. So, we are working on a cycle and we’re working with our board through our capital plan to address that as well.”