Early morning blaze destroys long-shuttered Vallejo school

VALLEJO – Vallejo firefighters battled a three-alarm blaze early Saturday morning that ultimately destroyed the long-shuttered Grant School in South Vallejo.

Firefighters responded to a call from a neighbor at 1:24 a.m. reporting a fire at the school, located at 740 Fifth St., and were on scene within three to four minutes, said fire spokesperson Capt. Aaron Klauber, who was at the school Saturday morning. 

Vallejo Fire Department Station 22 is right next to the school, so the response time for the first unit on the scene was the time it took for fire fighters to get up and put their gear on. 

The fire started in the northern, multi-story wing of the building, with large cavernous spaces, part of which may have been previously used as an auditorium or a gym. Klauber said that the fire was able to get a good start inside the building before flames were visible from the outside. So, when the first truck began to attack the fire, it was already significantly advanced. 

Firefighters from Benicia, Crockett, American Canyon and Fairfield assisted the Vallejo firefighters. Klauber said that a two-alarm fire requires a response from all seven of the department's engines so anything beyond that requires support from other departments. 

According to Vallejo fire Capt. Morty Culverwell, the combination of wooden construction materials and voids that are common in older buildings created conditions in which there was a lot of fuel that could burn quickly, “almost like a pallet bonfire,” he said. 

The department was able to contain the fire quickly after fire engines arrived, but they worked for six more hours to get it fully under control, according to Klauber. 

While the building was burning, firefighters carefully monitored residences to the east, behind the school on Sheridan Street to ensure that the wind did not spread the fire. 

At 8 a.m., smoke was still rising from the building and flames were still reemerging from hot spots in some areas. 

The Grant School has been closed since 1989. The Vallejo City Unified School District offered to transfer ownership of the 2.63-acre property to the city of Vallejo at no cost in the spring of 2023 because the cost to repair or demolish the building exceeded the property’s $300,000 estimated value. The Vallejo City Council approved a contract to transfer the property but it was never finalized.

The city had considered turning the building into a training center for the fire department or using the property for a mixed use development.

The investigation into the cause of the fire is not yet complete. However, Klauber said he suspects that the cooler temperatures last night may have prompted someone to start a warming or cooking fire. 

The department has responded to fires at this property at least twice before, Klauber added, once when a portable classroom caught fire and once when the playground was on fire. But there has not been any activity in the past couple of years, he said.

Culverwell, who was dispatched from the fire station next door, said that early that morning he noticed that plywood covering one of the windows had been removed or fallen off and he saw the silhouette of someone inside.

Walter Lopez, who lives half a block from the school, said that he and many of his neighbors have called the city to report people staying in the building and lighting fires. “Everybody has been complaining about it but the city does not do anything until it’s too late,” he said. 

Another neighbor, James Graves, who lives around the corner from the school, said that people had been staying inside the school and city workers removed people from the building about a week ago.

Klauber said that when there is a fire at a residence, it is often easier to determine if everybody has made it out safely. But when it comes to abandoned buildings, the firefighters are often working with less information. 

“It's a balance between our priority of life safety and knowing that a lot of these abandoned buildings can be occupied,” Klauber said. “So our initial concern is, can we get inside and how far can we get in to try and search for any potential victims before it becomes too dangerous?” 

Klauber said that the area where the fire started was already burning too hot for firefighters to access that section. But they were able to move through hallways and classrooms in other sections of the building to search for potential victims with a thermal imaging camera. 

After the six-hour battle, exhaustion was visible on the face of many of the firefighters. Klauber said that normally firefighters are working or ready to respond from the station during 48-hour shifts, but some of the firefighters had been on for 96 hours due to staffing shortages. 

Klauber, who is also secretary of the union Solano Napa Firefighters Foundation, said that firefighters are currently trying to negotiate a contract with the city of Vallejo for more competitive wages. 

“But that's irrelevant to what we do out here on the fire ground,” Klauber said. “We got a job to do, and these guys are going to push themselves to the limit to make sure it gets done, that's what we do.”

Editors note: this article has been updated to reflect that the contract for the city of Vallejo to acquire the Grant school property was never executed.