Fairington Elementary School students will report Tuesday to Miller Grove High School after a weekend fire caused “extensive water, smoke and soot damage,” the DeKalb County School District announced Monday morning.
About 5 p.m. Saturday, DeKalb Fire and Rescue crews found smoke and flames coming from a classroom at the rear of the school, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported.
Fire Capt. Eric Jackson told Channel 2 Action News that the timing of the fire — on a weekend, when the school was empty — suggested that it may have been the work of an arsonist.
“We are investigating this as an intentionally set fire,” he told the news station. “There was no one in the school at the time and there were no injuries to any of our firefighters.”
Since the fire, a team of nearly 150 workers have worked around the clock to repair damage to the school, district spokesman Quinn Hudson said in a statement. However, “the school will not be ready for students and staff on Tuesday,” he said.
Even though classes will be held in a different location, students should follow their normal routines. Bus riders should go to their regular bus stops, and walkers, car riders and nursery van providers should go to Fairington. The district will transport students from Fairington to Miller Grove.
At the end of the school day, the district will return students to Fairington’s multipurpose building, which did not sustain any damage.
Parents should pick up after school program students from the multipurpose building between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. Tuesday.
Hudson did not say when Fairington will resume normal operations.
“It will depend on how much progress is made in making repairs and removing the water and smoke damage,” he told The AJC. “That could take several days.”
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