LAKE ELSINORE: School equipment room heavily damaged in fire that forced student evacuations

LAKE ELSINORE – Students were temporarily evacuated from their classes after a fire broke out at Elsinore Middle School Monday, April 3. Although roughly two dozen firefighters managed to quickly extinguished the fire, the blaze left an equipment room heavily damaged.

“There were no injuries reported to firefighters, students or administrative staff,” Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Public Information Officer April Newman wrote in an incident report after the fire.

Twenty-three firefighters from five engine companies and one truck company responded to the fire in the 1200 block of West Graham Avenue in Lake Elsinore. They were overseen by four battalion commanders and assisted by an arson investigator.

Firefighters were first notified about the fire just before 9 a.m. They had the fire contained and students were allowed to return to their classes within thirty minutes.

When firefighters arrived at the school, they reported “a large commercial educational facility, with heavy black smoke visible from the east side of the building,” Newman explained. “Firefighters quickly contained the fire to the equipment room inside of the gym.”

Although the equipment room was heavily damaged by the blaze, Newman said the fire had “minimal impact to the school.”“The equipment room…sustained heavy fire damage, along with smoke and water damage to the main gym,” said Newman.

Elsinore School District representatives quickly arrived and school officials took over efforts to limit damage to the facility.

Southern California Edison was summoned to the scene of the fire to assist with rendering damaged electrical lines safe.

In a recorded telephone message sent to inform parents about the fire, Elsinore Middle School Principal James Judziewicz said the cause of the fire, which began near the boy’s locker room, is under investigation and the investigation was ongoing.

 

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Trevor Montgomery runs Riverside County News Source and Shasta County News Source. Additionally, he writes for Riverside County based newspapers, Valley News and Anza Valley Outlook and also writes for Bonsall/Fallbrook Village News in San Diego County.

Trevor spent 10 years in the U.S. Army as an Orthopedic Specialist before joining the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department in 1998. He was medically retired after losing his leg and breaking his back in an off-duty accident.

During his time with the sheriff’s department, Trevor worked at several different stations, including Robert Presley Detention Center, Southwest Station in Temecula, Hemet/Valle Vista Station, Ben Clark Public Safety Training Center and Lake Elsinore Station, along with other locations.