Wondai State School’s library was destroyed by fire on Saturday night

January 11, 2015

Local residents heard the sound of smashing glass before a fire razed the Wondai State School library on Saturday night.

The official cause of the fire is still unknown and a police spokesman said on Sunday afternoon investigators were probing the site to determine if the blaze was suspicious or non-suspicious.

However, Mr Russell Brown, who lives across the road in Kent Street, said his family heard glass being smashed and suspicious noises about 7:30pm on Saturday.

He and his wife Rae and son Codie, 19, went to investigate. They walked around the school grounds with torches, and Codie drove around the area, but nothing looked amiss.

But just before 2:30am they awoke to the sounds of a fire and called emergency services.

Four fire crews were quickly on the scene but there was nothing they could do to save the library building.

Wondai State School principal Ruth Miller said it was a scene of “total devastation”.

“I got there in the middle of the night. It was just horrible. Nothing could be done,” she said.

Mrs Miller said the fire would not delay the return of students to school on Tuesday, January 27.

Barricades have been erected around the remains of the library building because of the danger of asbestos from damaged fibro sheets.

“But it will be all cleared up before the students return,” Mrs Miller said.

“We will follow all the precautionary practices.”

Mrs Miller said refurbishing the library had been one of the school’s major projects over the past five years and had been the focus of fundraising efforts by the P&C.

Air-conditioning was installed about three years ago, new brightly coloured modern furniture had been purchased and the outside of the building was repainted in September.

Also lost in the fire were computers and resources for teachers.

“A brand new photocopier arrived last week. It hadn’t even been turned on,” Mrs Miller said.

“We spent a substantial amount of money on books, improving the fiction and non-fiction sections. It was a well-resourced library. Teachers from other schools would visit and say ‘wow’.”

And it was well-used by students.

“We probably get up to 60 children in the library during the lunch break,” Mrs Miller said.

The principal is determined to get the library up and running again as soon as possible.

She would be contacting book suppliers and furniture suppliers on Monday and hoped they may be able to provide a discount after they heard what had happened.

Fire crews stopped the blaze from spreading to other parts of the school
Russell Brown … heard the sound of breaking glass and went to investigate
The roof has collapsed into the building and the bookshelves and furniture are barely recognisable
Barricades have been erected around the site ahead of demolition of the remainder of the building
The fire also destroyed a bench outside the building

 

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