Roof fire doesn’t hinder school project
Two ladder trucks were used to fight the blaze at the high school.
Hungry Horse News
The roof fire at the Columbia Falls High School last week did not cause any major damage and won’t delay the replacement project, school Superintendent Cory Dziowgo said last week.
He said restoration crews were off the scene about 10 p.m. the night of the fire. He noted firefighters took pains to spray water across the roof rather than down on it to put it out, which reduced the amount of water damage in the school.
The roof caught fire at about 7 p.m. July 15. A neighbor saw smoke and flames coming off it and called it in. Fortunately, it was caught quickly. The blaze was likely caused by construction activities on the roof, but Dziowgo noted that crews were following fire prevention protocols.
The project to replace the roof is a $2.75 million project over the classroom wing of the high school. The roof was literally falling apart, as hidden steel between layers of the roof failed, literally crumbling to pieces. Crews typically peel off an old roof when replacing it. In this case, it’s been falling into classrooms and hallways and must be wheelbarrowed out.
Crews did emergency stabilization of the roof last year.
As crews demolish a section, crews from Swank Construction, which has the general contract, are installing trusses and the new roof behind them. The school is old, it was built in 1959, but generally has good “bones,” architects and engineers have said in the past.
The hope is to have the project largely completed by Sept. 3, when school starts.