TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN). — Salpointe Catholic High School was supposed to start school on August 8, but a fire that damaged a portion of the campus is pushing that date back.
On July 17, a fire broke out on campus and caused unrepairable damage to the English wing of the school.
After an investigation by Tucson Police and Tucson Fire Department, TPD arrested 26-year-old, Forrest Harris, for multiple charges including arson on July 30.
According to Salpointe, Harris has no known relation to the school.
“Six classrooms, hallways, 230 lockers, a couple of bathrooms…smoke damage, water damage and electrical damage did expand beyond the 700 wing into the 300, 400 and 500 wings of the school,” said Salpointe president, Kay Sullivan.
School officials said the damages could go into millions of dollars.
The Chief Financial Officer of the school said insurance was able to cover most of the repairs, but it’s the race against time as they welcome back about 1,290 students on July 15.
“This has been a huge curveball. You never anticipate something like this happening,” said Ernie Duarte.
The school will have temporary classrooms to replace the six that were damaged in the fire.
“We’re installing six modular classrooms, hopefully. I think we’ve gotten through the city permitting and now we’re at the state and we’re really hoping that the state will be quick,” said Sullivan.
Salpointe is down about 250 lockers and is expecting new ones to be installed within the first couple weeks of school.
The school is under 24/7 security watch since the fire and officials said they’re planning on upgrading their surveillance system as well.
“We will be installing a brand-new camera program throughout our entire campus and probably will check our reinforcement with our rod iron fences in order to disallow people from coming in there,” said Sullivan.
While some of the repairs may not be ready in time before school starts, Sullivan and her team said they are grateful for the support they’ve received.
“It’s been stressful, but we’re going to get through it,” said Duarte.
Sullivan said the school will post a fire fund to their website that the community can donate to within the next couple of days.
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Faith Abercrombie is a reporter for KGUN 9. Before coming to KGUN, Faith worked as a videographer for the Phoenix Children's Hospital Foundation and as a reporter and producer on the youth suicide documentary, "Life is..." on Arizona PBS.
Share your story ideas with Faith by emailing faith.abercrombie@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, or Twitter.
