Learning Resource Center, other Lab School classrooms destroyed

By Maurice Ndole

A fire razed down two classrooms and learning resource center at the Fresno State Lab School at about 2 a.m. Monday morning.

The Learning Resource Center and the Communicative Disorders and Deaf Studies were directly hit by the fire. University officials cancelled all classes in the Lab School on Monday and are trying to move the Learning Resource Center to another building.

The fire started at 2:50 a.m. at the south end of the campus, near Keats and Jackson avenues. The fire only affected two classrooms. He could not give the estimate worth of the loss incurred. According to Rod Russel, Fresno City fire investigator.

A gray billow of smoke and a column of flames shot several feet above the roof of the building. Firefighters broke windows and walls to get access to the building.

The blaze brought in a contingent of police from Fresno State University Police Department, 10 fire engines and about 30 firefighters from the Fresno Fire Department.

The fire was discovered by a Fresno State night custodian and two Fresno Bee delivery people.

“ One of the custodians spotted the smoke,” said Cathering Sidmen, a lead custodian at Fresno State. “She speaks an Asian language, so she called another custodian to interpret what she saw. That’s when we called the police.”

The cause of the fire could not be immediately established, but one witness, a Fresno Bee newspaper distributor who identified himself only as London, said the fire could have started from a soda machine.

“ We saw the vending machine on fire,” London said. “It was just melting.”