Only weeks after fire, Gates School in Aurora ready to open for classes

Aug. 12--Gates Elementary School in Aurora will open Wednesday for the first day of school in spite of a fire that severely damaged portions of the building in late July.

"The school is ready for students," East Aurora School District Board President Annette Johnson said.

A fire July 28 caused almost $1 million in damage to areas of the building, according to estimates from the district's insurance company.

The blaze was contained to a music room and three classrooms in a wing of the building. However, the gymnasium and 10 classrooms nearby sustained heavy smoke and water damage during the fire.

The building will open Wednesday for the first day of school, Johnson said, however the areas most damaged by the fire will be closed.

"The music room and two classrooms are the only areas that will be closed off. A final inspection to give clearance of the gymnasium will be done Tuesday," Johnson said.

The work to get everything ready for school to start is ahead of schedule, she said.

It helped that the district's insurance agent was on the scene every day to ensure the building would open on time, Johnson said.

"Everything went really well," Johnson said. "All of the other classrooms were cleaned."

The school community really came together to help after the fire, Johnson said.

"All of our teachers are great. Teachers from other schools and classrooms pulled together all of the supplies for one another. The classrooms are good to go," she said.

A district-wide kickoff was held Monday in the East Aurora High School auditorium for teachers and support staff.

"We thanked all of our teachers for coming together to help teachers affected by the fire. It all really helped," Johnson said.

Aurora firefighters responded to an automatic alarm around 3 a.m. July 28 at the school on the 800 block of Seventh Avenue.

When firefighters got inside the building they encountered heavy smoke and high heat conditions and found a fire burning in the music room, fire department officials said.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

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