Stubbs Elementary School in Wilmington was evacuated after a small fire Monday morning, but the site will reopen Tuesday. Principal Jeffers Brown “will be notifying parents and staff of this decision,” Christina School District Public Information Officer Wendy Lapham said.
City fire crews were dispatched at 8:10 a.m. after sprinklers set off an automatic alarm, according to Battalion Chief James R. Jobes, the department’s public information officer. Firefighters found medium-heavy smoke on the second floor with water in the hallway, Jobes said. Crews that began searching the second floor with fire hoses found an activated sprinkler in one room, with the fire already out, he said.
Nearly 330 students in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade were relocated from their school in the 1100 block of N. Pine St. to the nearby Howard High School of Technology in the 400 block of E. 12th St., Lapham said.
“Being right across the street, it worked out perfect,” she said.
Since school doesn’t start until 9 a.m, only teachers and other staff members were in the building, Lapham said.
Arriving buses were directed to the high school, she said, and students who walk were escorted there.
Water from the sprinkler reached adjoining rooms and leaked through the floor to classrooms below, he said.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation by the Wilmington Fire Marshal’s Office.
Parents and concerned citizens may call the school at (302) 429-4175 for more information.
There was no immediate estimate of damage to the elementary school, built in 1953 and named for city native Dr. Frederick Douglass Stubbs, one of the country’s top thoracic surgeons.
Reporting on lives and property saved by fire sprinklers
