More pictures and video footage of the fire.

 

Bellingham dispatch received a report of a fire on the roof of Whatcom Middle School at approximately 1 a.m. Thursday morning. 

By 5 a.m., the school’s roof had collapsed, the basement was flooded and the fire continued to burn inside the building as firefighters worked to contain and subdue the flames.  

The fire, whose cause is still unknown, left 580 students and 55 staff members without a school and has severely damaged an icon with deep ties to the thousands of Bellingham residents who have passed through its halls. 

Assistant Fire Chief Andy Day said as of Thursday afternoon, the fire was fully controlled with only a few minor hot spots. He said officials from the Bellingham fire and police departments had already begun investigations into the cause of the fire, but that it could be several days before anything is determined. Updates of the investigation will be posted in a follow-up press release. 

The school was undergoing renovations to bring up it up to earthquake-safety codes, but it is still unclear whether the upgrades could have had any part in the fire. There have been reports of welders seen working on the roof until late into the night, but Day said while it’s something they will be looking into, there’s no way to determine anything right now. 

The Bellingham School District has cancelled school for Whatcom Middle School students until Nov. 12 to allow officials time to organize strategies to deal with the displaced students. Whatcom Middle School parents are encourage to attend a meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Monday Nov. 9 at the Bellingham High School theater. Parents will be provided with information about student placement, transportation issues, and answers to questions they may have. Only parents of Whatcom students may attend. Until then, students and staff can find updates at www.bsd501.org, the Bellingham School District Web site. 

All other Bellingham schools will continue on their regular schedules.  

Day said the building is still not safe to enter, and determining the salvageable extent of the damage is a decision that structural engineers and school officials will have to make after fully assessing the situation.  

At around 1 a.m. Thursday morning, neighbors called 911 after seeing flames on the roof of the school. Firefighters arrived 15 minutes later and began a search for anyone inside the building. However, strong winds stoked the flames and pushed the fire across most of the roof and they were forced to pull back into defensive positions. 

As the fire grew, flames could be seen in the upstairs windows of the schools and a river of water burst out the glass in the front doors. Acrid smoke poured into the neighborhoods around the school and the intersection of D Street and Girard flooded while city workers worked to pump the water away from storm drains running into Whatcom Creek. The fire could be spotted from as far as Western’s campus. 

Resources from across the district were called, including four ladder trucks and engines from outlying areas such as Ferndale and Blaine. Around 7 a.m., the fire was considered mostly controlled, and as of Thursday afternoon one crew remained to continue monitoring the building.

“This is really sad,” Bellingham Police Lt. Rick Sucee said.  “It was a beautiful building, and community icon.” 

Built in 1903, Whatcom Middle School is the oldest school in the district. Thousands of Bellingham students attended the school, and it has connections in the community that often extend generations.  

Tracy Lambert, lead cashier at Western’s Atrium Café, attended the middle school until 1983. In the 60s, her parents were students as well; and the school was 20 years old when her grandfather, also an alumnus of the school, was born.   

“I took gymnastics there, I played band there and went to school there,” she said. “I walked by it every day, taking my kids to day care.” 

The school even touches non-native residents. Teri Herda, a third-grade teacher at Geneva Elementary School, grew up in Seattle, but nearly her entire family attended Whatcom Middle School. 

“My husband went to Whatcom, my older son, who’s now in college, went to Whatcom and my daughter is going to Whatcom. So many families, so much history that was lost in a couple of hours,” Herda said. “It’s a terrible loss.” 

Her eighth-grade daughter left Wednesday for a field trip and Herda isn’t sure she knows about the fire. She said she can see some of the students having a tough time dealing with the loss, and most parents are just waiting to see what happens.  

Ties to the Whatcom Middle School are common with Western students as well. Makenzi Wymer, who graduated in June with French and political science degrees, played viola in the school’s orchestra and said students often joked about the possibility of a fire.

“We were always making comments that it might burn down, about the quality of the building. It’s so weird that it’s gone. I thought it’d be there forever.” 

“So many people’s lives have been touched by that place,” Wymer said. “I have friends who went there, whose parents went there, whose grandparents went there. It’s really tragic to lose it.”   

 

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