Boy arrested in blaze that destroys school

132 teenagers left with no place to go

By Robin Uris and Adam Geller, Staff Writers

A fire that reportedly began when a teenager ignited a handful of paper towels gutted a private high school in Westwood on Thursday morning, leaving officials scrambling to find classrooms for 132 learning-disable students.

At first, students and teachers strolled out of Community High School, believing they were taking part in a scheduled fire drill. No one was seriously hurt.

But as flames shot through the roof and windows of the two-story brick building, many stood in a nearby church parking lot and cried.

"Everything we are, everything we've worked so hard to build is burning up in that building," said Judy Ivler, a history and literature teacher at the school. "Pictures of all my kids, their records, their work. Everything."

A 17-year-old Manhattan boy was charged with aggravated arson, criminal mischief, and risking or causing widespread damage, said Ralph Lilore of the Bergen County prosecutor's arson squad. The boy was being held at the county juvenile detention center in Paramus pending a court appearance today. He was not identified because of his age.

"He did it on purpose? You mean he meant to do it?" asked Danielle Barringer, a junior from Queens. The fire consumed an oil painting she had hoped would earn her a college scholarship. "How could somebody do something like that?"

More than 100 firefighters from eight towns fought the blaze, which began in a second-floor restroom and quickly spread through the timber truss roof, fanned by 28 mph winds.

The building, a Washington Avenue landmark since 1931, when it opened as St. Andrew's Elementary School, was destroyed in slightly less than one hour. It did not have a sprinkler system, but Mayor Bernard "Skip" Kelley said the school met all fire code standards.

Two students discovered the fire and notified a teacher, who called 911.

The non-profit school educates college-bound students with learning disabilities from North Jersey and New York City. The building is owned by the Archdiocese of Newark and is leased to Community High School.

"I want my school back," said Janice Magee of River Vale, a science teacher at the school for 15 years. She wept openly as she watched the building burn. "Everything, my whole life, is in there."

Magee said her despair was magnified by the uncertainty about what would come next for her and her neurologically impaired students, who no longer have a place to gather and learn.

"Now what am I supposed to do, teach? Where am I supposed to go? Can I call some kids and say, 'Come over to my house'?"

Governor Whitman, who flew from Trenton by helicopter, said she had directed state officials to provide counseling for the students. She also wants the state commissioner of education to "do everything in his power" to find an appropriate place for the children to continue the school year.

"I don't thing we will find one single facility" to hold all the students, Whitman said. "This was a very special place.

On Thursday afternoon, school officials called each student's home district, trying to find space. "We probably won't be all together, and that's really hard, you know?" said Barringer, the student from Queens.

The school's curriculum includes all the basics - history, literature, math, science, computers. But the program was geared to children with developmental disabilities ranging from mild dyslexia to neurological impairments and attention deficit disorder.

Magee and other teachers described Community High School as more than just a school and said the bonds tying them together would make it easier to rebuild.

"We'll just have to find a way," said Peggy Killeen, a school secretary.

The fire broke out at 8:41 a.m., and by the time firefighters arrived a short time later, the school was engulfed. Three firefighters suffered minor injuries: One slipped on ice, one inhaled too much smoke, and another collapsed from exhaustion.

All were treated at Pascack Valley Hospital and released, officials said.

No students or teachers were injured, and this may have been because of the calm exhibited during the evacuation, teachers said. Administrators had planned a routine fire drill, and when students heard the alarm, they figured it was a dry run.

"That's why nobody took anything with them, no coats or handbags or anything," said Barringer. "We thought we'd be outside for, like, five minutes."

Students in gym class walked into 23-degree air wearing little more than shorts, T-shirts, and tennis shoes. Teachers left handbags with cash and keys, and most students did not take their coats.

Moments later, after the teachers lined up their students in a back parking lot and took a head count, someone noticed smoke curling from an upstairs window.

"That's when it began to dawn on us that this one was for real," said art teacher Jim Sisti.

The students were taken into the basement of St. Andrew's Roman Catholic Church, down the street. One boy's mother arrived with pillows, blankets, and Twizzlers. A bakery donated bagels and cream cheese, and two restaurants delivered free burgers. A pizza parlor delivered a few hot fresh pies.

Kmart donated crayons and paper so that the students would have something to do.

The students were taken from the church basement to the municipal court in groups for questioning. By late afternoon, police concluded that the Manhattan boy had set fire to the paper towels with a match. Outside the school, buses lined up, waiting to take students home.

"A lot of these kids are latchkey kids, and their keys are burning up in the fire and there is nobody home to meet them," said a teacher's assistant, Dana Smith, who lost her college thesis and $500 cash in the fire. "It's impossible to imagine everything that is being lost in that building."

The private school had just raised money to build a new computer lab. The pages for the next edition of the school yearbook were laid out and ready to go to the printer. The seeds planted by a science class studying germination were burned before they had a chance to grow.

The prizes donated for the school's annual fashion show also went up in smoke.

Justin Blasko, 16, of Clifton stared grimly at the building watching a fireman atop a ladder spray freezing water into what was left of his art classroom, where five of his paintings were left behind.

The abstract works might not have much values to others, Blasko said, but to him, they were the results of an artistic awakening.

"They are really important to me," he said. "I had never been able to express my feelings before, and I hit the nail right on the head with these."

The school's destruction was also mourned by Westwood residents, who described the two-story red brick building as a community landmark.

"It breaks your heart to see it," said Bob Lester, 71, who lives around the corner. "I went there, all my children went there, and some of my grandchildren went there."

Fires have robbed Westwood of some of its most cherished buildings over the years. In 1982 and 1983, three fires leveled much of Westwood's downtown, damaging or destroying 19 businesses.

Thursday's fire also saddened parishioners at St. Andrew's, which used the building for Sunday school classes and basketball games.