FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM
A fire at Waianae High School burned five rooms on U Building's second floor yesterday, causing an estimated $750,000 in damage.
Waianae school fire
no prankThe high school suffers an
estimated $750,000 in damage
Some Waianae High School teachers thought they were the victims of an April Fools' Day joke when they received calls saying that their classrooms were on fire yesterday.
But it turned out it was no joke: The fire was all too real.
The blaze burned five rooms on the second floor of U Building, causing an estimated $750,000 in damage.
"There was an alarm that went off ... and I came outside and I saw smoke, then later, flames," said math teacher Alvin Adaniya, who had been tutoring students in Room U-102, on the first floor. "The flames were 2 feet high."
Firefighters said though the building itself is concrete and suffered little damage, the flames consumed everything inside, from desks to books to files to chalkboards and computers. Firefighters received the first alarm at 2:22 p.m. and reported the blaze under control by 3:10 p.m.
"The damage is mostly in the middle two classrooms," said Fire Department spokesman Capt. Emmit Kane. "The ones on the end suffered some damage from smoke and heat."
FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM
A fire at Waianae High School destroyed five rooms on the second floor of U Building. Damage is estimated at $750,000.
History teacher Kathy Yamamoto has one of the classrooms in the middle, U-202, and said she thought her vice principal was joking when he first called.
"I figured I'd better check it out myself," she said. "Then when I got here, the baseball players were yelling to me, 'Your room is on fire, your louvers are melting!'"
"At least no one got hurt -- this could have happened while school was in session."
Students are on spring break until Monday.
Vice Principal Ryan Oshita said there had been some maintenance workers clean- ing the floors of U Building classrooms earlier in the week. Other than that, Oshita said no one had been inside and that all classroom doors had been locked.
Kane said the cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Oshita said as soon as he found out about the fire, he called all the teachers who held classes on the second floor of U Building and left a short message:
"Your room is on fire. Gotta go."
It was not long before he said he received a call back. "They said, 'What do you think I am, stupid? It's April Fools' Day!'"
