High school fire causes minimal damage

Fulton Fire Department firefighters respond to a blaze that ignited in the shop at Fulton High School Tuesday evening.
Fulton Fire Department firefighters respond to a blaze that ignited in the shop at Fulton High School Tuesday evening.

Tuesday afternoon's power outage at Fulton High School was inadvertently also the cause of a fire at the school a few hours later.

The Fulton Fire Department responded to a fire alarm at the high school shortly after 4 p.m. Upon arrival, smoke was spotted coming out of the shop area at the back of the building. There were no students in the shop at the time.

"I guess they were doing some grinding in there and the power went off, so they went back to the classroom. The power came back on and the power (on the grinder) was still switched to on," Fulton Fire Chief Dean Buffington said of the cause of the blaze. "We had the fire pretty much under control and were doing ventilation operations within about five minutes."

He said it took 30-40 minutes to get the smoke entirely cleared from the shop area, noting, "we were concentrating on keeping it out of the main building."

Buffington said there was "very minimal" damage to the school, although he added that it could be several days before the smell of smoke fades.

Although she agreed it was not extensive, Assistant Superintendent Suzanne Hull said the exact scope of damage from the fire "is hard to tell at this point."

"We have a smoke and restoration company coming in the morning to evaluate the area," Hull said, noting it was mostly smoke damage.

To help the tornado-stricken people of Dumas and surroundings, donations can be made to the Delta Area Disaster Relief Fund, care of the Delta Area Community Foundation, P.O. Box 894, Dumas, AR, 71639, or through the Arkansas Community Foundation, 700 S. Rock St., Little Rock, AR, 72202.