I do not know if anyone from Active Rain has written about this, locally in my area, or not. But last week, Thursday early morning, there was a major fire at Whatcom Middle School. Now I relate to that school. It used to be the original high school in Bellingham and when I was in school it was a junior high and I attended Whatcom Junior High.

In 1966 it became a middle school. Fifty years ago, in Bellingham, you went to elementary school grades 1 through 6. Then you were in junior high grades 7,8 and 9 and then you were at high school for grades 10, 11 and 12. Back in 1966, they changed it to the way it is today. Grade school is for grades 1 to 5. Then middle school for 6, 7 and 8. High school from 9th to 12th grades.

So this is a proud old building. The good news is that, while extensive damage was done, the school was not destroyed. The fire was, largely, confined to the roof and upper floor. None the less, it was a devastating fire as you can see in the video below. 

This fire displaced nearly 600 students and the school district is still wrestling with getting these kids educated during a totally unexpected crisis. By the way, work was being done on the school -- welding on the roof as they worked on earthquake upgrades -- and it is thought that this work was involved in the fire getting started. I hope those guys working, if it turns out that way, are insured.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith