Aurora school damaged by fire Sunday

First-grade students at John Gates Elementary School in Aurora will learn in improvised quarters this fall, as the school repairs damage from a fire Sunday in one wing of the building.

One classroom - the school's music room - burned. The other three classrooms and some offices were damaged by soot, smoke and water, Superintendent Jennifer Norrell said Tuesday.

She said the district expects the damage may cost as much as $1 million, and that it may take until December to finish repairing and cleaning the rooms. Norrell said the insurance investigators have already said the air quality in the school is safe for staff and students to return, but she plans to have more testing done next week. Teachers are due to report for duty next week; school starts Aug. 14.

The Aurora Fire Department responded to an alarm from the building at 3:01 a.m. Sunday. They could not tell where the fire was from outside, initially. The intensity of the fire broke windows in the music classroom, allowing flames to escape and crawl to the flat, tarred roof of the 63-year-old one-story brick building.

Norrell said the district had abated some asbestos-containing material in the building earlier this summer. It was just finishing up stripping, cleaning and waxing the floors in the affected wing, she said.

The first-graders will be taught in other rooms in the building, including former classrooms that were being used for teachers' development work and for curriculum and instruction work, Norrell said. New music equipment and supplies are already being ordered for the music program.

The city has offered help, and the teachers in the affected classrooms will be given extra time to prepare for the school year, she said.