Wood Creek Elementary to partially open after roof fire caused by fireworks

A fire caused by fireworks on the roof of Wood Creek Elementary during the early morning hours of July 27 nearly displaced students at the start of the school year.

 Fortunately, the school was able to secure a permit to partially open the building so that school can resume Aug. 26. 

“We are excited that staff will be able to enter the school next week to set up their classrooms. However, families will not be able to be on site until Monday, Aug. 26,” Kelly Coffin, interim superintendent of Farmington Public Schools, said in a letter to parents and families Aug. 16. 

The school will have the areas affected by the fire cordoned off. 

The areas that will be inaccessible include the gym, the cafeteria, the music room and two kindergarten classrooms.

Coffin  said they will move the affected kindergarten classrooms to the other side of the school. 

The kitchen area was unaffected, so they will be able to continue to have hot breakfast and lunches for students. 

“We have a solid plan in place for the partial reopening of the school,” Coffin said. 

The repair work is expected to take approximately two months to complete.  Coffin said during a school board meeting Aug. 13  that there is a lot of work to be done to make that area of the school building “structurally sound.”

The effects of the fire displaced many voters, as the school was scheduled to be a polling place for the Aug. 6 primary election. 

  Although the fire on the roof was contained to the outside of the building, the resulting smoke and water damage makes the area uninhabitable. District officials said they were working around the clock to correct the issue, but there were multiple hurdles to clear in order to completely reopen the school building. 

“Immediately when we heard of the fire we recognized that the damage, while it was contained to one wing of the building … the fire and smoke smell was throughout the building, but truly it was the water in putting out the fire that created the most damage,” said Coffin, during the Aug. 13 Board of Education meeting.

  According to Farmington Hills Fire Marshal Jason Baloga, firefighters worked diligently.

 “We expedited this process to ensure that Farmington Public Schools could move forward with its insurance claim and reconstruction process with efficiency,” Baloga said in an email. “We look forward to the school returning to normal operations as soon as possible.”

The school also underwent an electrical inspection because the generator switch was in the vicinity of the fire. Coffin said the district had an extra switch at North Farmington High School that they were able to use at Wood Creek to expedite the process of getting the building approved. 

As a result of the fireworks incident, the unoccupied school building was being guarded by around the clock security service workers working six- to eight-hour  “fire watch” shifts, sitting in a rocking chair at the main entrance to prevent people from entering and watching to make sure nothing catches fire.  

“We just make sure nothing sparks,” said Joshua Webb of City Shield Security Services.

Webb said that along with monitoring the door, they do rounds around the school to make sure no fires occur, as another company is working on the electrical system and lights are, “like, hanging.” Diane Bauman, FPS director of school and community relations and pupil accounting, said the guards were there to watch the unoccupied building to make sure there were no more fires and to prevent people from breaking into the building. 

Coffin said that 360 Fire and Flood was hired immediately after the fire to start the process of cleaning up the damage.  

The building is now cleaned, and the items damaged by the fire have been inventoried.  

Coffin said they expected to get a list of the inventoried items soon. Once they receive that information they will be working to replace those items. 

“Many of our departments in other buildings are loaning things to the teachers in the event that we are willing to start. So, we will be ready to start that way,” said Coffin. “Much of the materials were completely destroyed, so we do have a list of the books that were damaged and had to be thrown out, so we are working to order those as well. So, we’re doing everything on our part to be ready to be open,” said Coffin. 

The district had also considered several other options for the children to be able to start school on time, including sending the children temporarily to various other schools in the district, going virtual for up to 15 days, or possibly delaying the start of the school year, which would have resulted in additional school days being added at the end of the year.

Many parents went to the Aug. 13 meeting to express their concerns about the possibility of virtual school. Many said virtual school presents challenges, as they work full time and young children not only have to be supervised — which would prevent parents from going to work or would require a babysitter — and that elementary children don’t learn and focus well in virtual school. 

“Wood Creek is one of those things that you don’t plan for, but in today’s world, tornadoes come through and rip roofs off buildings, floods happen,” said Claudia Heinrich, a board member. “We didn’t prepare for the global pandemic in 2020. We had to figure out what to do. So, we have all of that experience and we have emergency plans in place. … We don’t necessarily want to take the easy way out.”

Heinrich said she understood parents’ frustration with the lack of communication, but that when working with contractors, “sometimes there isn’t good communication because there isn’t information to communicate.” 

However, she said that perhaps they just need to communicate that they are “hounding” people about the issue and there aren’t any updates.  She said they need to look at how they can meet the needs of all families and offer options. She said that families are impacted differently. Some are fine with virtual. Some are not. 

“I want to challenge the district to really be creative and make sure we really meet the needs of all the families and listen to what they are needing and offer a variety of solutions,” said Heinrich. 

Coffin said she will continue to update parents via email. However, should they have additional questions, they can contact Principal Christina Lewis at christina.lewis@fpsk12.nwr or send an email to info@fpsk12.net.