THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 17, 1996 TAG: 9604160148
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 140 lines
A PATCH OF BLACKENED brick, a faint odor of smoke and a row of idle kitchen appliances, all swathed in sooty plastic sheeting, are the only remaining clues that a blistering fire swept through the south wing of Princess Anne High School early Sept. 1.
A new roof now covers that wing, which suffered the hardest blow from the deliberately set blaze.
Huge steel I-beams twisted by the intense heat now have been replaced, welded and bolted together at the second-floor level to form sturdy supports.
A mass of asbestos that had been used to insulate the damaged part of the building has been removed by a special contractor.
Thousands of gallons of water that had been poured onto the blaze by firefighters had accumulated on the ground floor and at the base of the school auditorium. That too has been siphoned off or swept away, leaving the concrete bare, but still damp and musty.
The sprawling brick high school facing Virginia Beach Boulevard, a few blocks from the solid, middle-income Thalia neighborhood, is making a comeback.
Work is on schedule and the fire-damaged areas should be open for classes in January 1997, said Tony Arnold, director of facilities planning for Virginia Beach schools.
``Basically, we've completed the structural part of the school (renovation),'' explained Paul Greg, a barrel-chested 6-footer who makes daily inspections of the school construction for city schools.
``Workers have installed sprinkler systems and fire walls to bring the school up to code,'' he said.
To make his point, he nodded his helmeted head toward a busy network of overhead pipes stretching the length of the once gutted and now-cleared two-story wing.
``Now that we have a roof on, we'll be able to start on the finishing work inside. It should really go fast the first week.''
Finishing work will include installing new front window-walls, blocking out and framing classroom space, replacing wiring, plumbing fixtures, air conditioning and heating ducts and adding new furnishings and equipment.
One area that will require major attention is the school auditorium, which was severely damaged by smoke and water from fire hoses. It is bare now. New seats, stage curtains and sound and lighting systems must be installed.
``This was almost all under water,'' said Greg, viewing the stage from the crest of a downward slope near the entrance. ``It was a mess.''
Workmen for W.M. Jordan Construction Co. of Newport News and a host of subcontractors have been on the job seven days a week, eight to 10 hours a day since last fall to restore the 42-year-old school to its former glory.
``They even worked on Super Bowl Sunday - up until kickoff - and I've never heard of that being done before,'' Arnold said.
The contractor has finished the first phase of the renovation and is ready to move on to the second, Greg said.
This includes adding 10,000 square feet of covered floor space in the center courtyard for cafeteria, library and art classroom use.
``It's going to be a beautiful building once we get finished with it,'' Arnold added. ``We've actually been able to increase the width of hallways, too.''
The cost of fixing the damaged portion of the school will be $5.5 million to $6 million, Arnold said. The cost of replacing equipment, school supplies and furnishings would be added to that sum.
School and insurance officials have estimated the fire damage at $7 million.
The insurance claim to Aetna, calculated by architects and engineers, will cover design fees, asbestos abatement, expenses for demolition and reconstruction, building contents and related damages.
Another $1.5 million, appropriated by the city, will cover the cost of the new cafeteria, library and art classroom space. This expense is not covered by insurance because it's new space being added to the old building.
An ongoing budget crisis has forced the Virginia Beach School Board to seek financing for the expansion with money from its $3 million site acquisition fund, which usually is tapped to buy land for future school buildings. The City Council had to authorize the transfer of money for the expansion.
A group of students, parents and teachers, who banded together shortly after the early morning fire to raise funds for expenses not covered by insurance, have accumulated $105,000 so far, principal Pat Griffin said.
That money will be used to pay for materials used by members of school clubs and other extracurricular activities.
City fire investigators say the blaze was set by arsonists near the entrance to the second-floor library in the early hours of Sept. 1, just four days before classes began for the year. It gutted 29 classrooms, the library and the cafeteria before firefighters could bring it under control.
A 19-room classroom addition that was under construction at the time the fire erupted has been completed.
Investigators have yet to charge anybody with setting the fire, although they continue to interview students and sift through clues, said Capt. Murrey Loflin, a Fire Department spokesman.
There has been no movement on the case despite a $1,000 reward offered by Virginia Beach Crime Solvers and $5,000 offered by the Virginia chapter of the International Association of Arson Investigators.
Since the fire, about 2,500 of the school's 2,900 students have been housed in Celebration Station, a defunct shopping mall on Virginia Beach Boulevard, two miles east of the main campus.
The rest are housed in portable classrooms and undamaged classrooms back at the high school.
Before the fire, Princess Anne was the city's oldest high school still in use. It was built in 1954.
Included in its daily operation was the Open Campus program and the Princess Anne Center for Pregnant Teens.
The school has been renovated twice in recent years, and both times demands for a larger cafeteria were deferred to make way for other improvements. ILLUSTRATION: [Cover, Color photo]
RISE & REBUILD
ON THE COVER
Rob Whalen looks over construction plans for Princess Anne High in
the picture on the cover, taken by staff photographer Steve Earley.
Staff photos by STEVE EARLEY
Bart Dowdy, left, works on the heating and cooling system while Gary
Gooding removes debris from the first floor of the high school
building.
David Flanagan bends some pipe for the hallway at Princess Anne
High.
Staff photos by STEVE EARLEY
At right: Steel beams mark what will be the hallway between
classrooms in the new, rebuilt school building. ``It's going to be a
beautiful building once we get finished with it,'' said Tony
Arnold, director of facilities planning for Virginia Beach schools.
``We've actually been able to increase the width of hallways, too.''
Paul Greg makes daily inspections of the construction for city
schools. ``Workers have installed sprinkler systems and fire walls
to bring the school up to code,'' he said.
by CNB