SCHOOL is out for more than 1200 students at Tamworth’s Oxley High School as fire investigators continue their probe into what caused a fire that destroyed one-quarter of the school’s teaching buildings.
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Click the image below for more pics from the fire scene
The blaze tore through the top floor of one of the school’s four teaching blocks early yesterday morning.
The Castlereagh building, which normally houses the physical education and health and English classrooms, the counsellor’s office and the careers unit, was well alight when firefighters arrived on the scene about 3.55am.
They were alerted to the fire by a neighbouring resident who was woken by a bang and got up to investigate the sound.
Yesterday afternoon, forensic fire investigators and police were still waiting for the site to cool to the point where they could enter the site.
They were unable to confirm if the blaze was being treated as suspicious.
Genevieve Sheridan lives opposite the school and was the one who called triple-0, after she was woken by a loud banging sound.
“It was a pretty non-specific bang,” she said.
“Ten minutes later smoke began to bellow out of the Castlereagh building.”
Such was the force of the blaze it blew out all of the top-floor windows.
Yesterday the rumour mill was in full spin around town, with theories of how the blaze started – everything from an electrical fault to a malicious-damage attack were suggested on social networking sites.
What caused the fire and how are not likely to be known until later today, if not tomorrow.
School principal Tim O’Brien, who was called about 4am by a neighbour, said the damage was devastating.
“It’s horrible,” he said.
“The damage is extensive. We can’t salvage anything from the top floor.
“Those teachers have lost all of their resources and some of them will be impossible to replace.”
Staff were shocked at the damage to the building when they began to arrive at the school shortly after 9am.
It is believed the library and classrooms on the bottom floor of the building were determined to be structurally sound by firefighters, who fought much of the top-floor blaze from the library roof, when the fire was finally extinguished.
Department of Education assessors were brought in to check the level of smoke and water damage.
Mr O’Brien said much of the focus for staff following the initial shock yesterday was planning to ensure students were as unaffected in the coming weeks as possible.
That process of planning will continue today.
“Year 12 are more than halfway through their HSC now, so we will be making sure there is minimal disruption to their timetables,” Mr O’Brien said.
“Luckily the subjects catered for in the classrooms that have been destroyed, as far as we know, weren’t housing any Year 12 major works.”
New England region director of schools Jim White announced yesterday students were to stay home until tomorrow.
“The logistics of moving classes and ensuring safety for staff and students means we will ask all students to stay home. School will resume as normal on Tuesday,” Mr White said.
He said Tamworth TAFE director Paul Callaghan had offered to help cater for the school’s students and teachers.
“He said TAFE would do whatever they can to help,” Mr White said.
It is likely that until temporary demountable classrooms can be brought in in a couple of weeks, the neighbouring TAFE campus will be home for some classrooms.
Early yesterday it was thought the school would be able to cater for students today, but at noon yesterday Mr White made the decision to close the school.
