The principal of a DeKalb County school damaged in a weekend fire announced some good news Friday.
“Fairington Elementary School will be ready for our students’ return on Monday, January 26,” Jeffrey Jenkins said in a letter to parents.
About 5 p.m. Jan. 17, 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. The fire caused "extensive water, smoke and soot damage," district officials said this week.
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.”
Officials this week released a photo taken by a surveillance camera of a man who was seen on the campus when the fire occurred. As of Friday afternoon, the man had not been found.
While a crew of nearly 150 people worked around the clock to repair damage to the school, Fairington moved classes to nearby Miller Grove High School. Students have reported there since Tuesday, the first day of school after the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
In the letter to parents, Jenkins said, “we have successfully met this challenging event for our Fairington Family.”
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