Thursday, November 5, 2009

Huge Fire

Still in shock about the huge fire at Whatcom Middle School that was fueled by high winds during the night, I can hardly believe it.
Reader photo submitted to the Bellingham Herald
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Built in the early 1900s, Whatcom is one of the oldest school buildings in the State of Washington, and a major landmark in this town. In the 1930s, my father attended Whatcom when it served as a high school. After Bellingham High School was built, Whatcom became a junior high school - that's when I attended Whatcom. More years later, Whatcom had changed to a middle school and my daughter attended. For now, all classes have been canceled and Whatcom will sit gutted, burned out, void of academics and no longer filled with the voices of students past while fire officials investigate this tragic fire and the Bellingham School District sorts out what to do with their 600 or so displaced students.
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Read an article and view photos at the Bellingham Herald here - http://www.bellinghamherald.com/255/story/1145356.html.
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The news about the fire at Whatcom is quickly spreading. Check out the video of this fire already posted on Youtube (thank you fistofblog).
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Did you happen to catch the sound of the wind during the end of this video? The wind, in gusts of 30 to 40 miles per hour, certainly must have contributed to the most difficult and dangerous job of containing and fighting this fire as the crews worked throughout the night.
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Sometimes I try to remember what life was like before Youtube. Now I should ponder what life might be like AFTER this fire.

4 comments:

  1. Oh Rose-what a sad thing! That building must have held so many memories for your whole community!
    Kris

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  2. Im a student at whatcom
    and i miss the school

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  3. Update, Whatcom Middle School is in the process of being rebuilt. They recently won a contest to have new computers donated to the school by NBC!

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  4. I read in our local paper about the computer donation and think that is so wonderful. It's about time I post a new blog entry about Whatcom because I've noticed so much progress in the reconstruction of the building each time I drive by. It is exciting to see!

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Thanks for commenting!