As an excavator knocked down walls and roof beams exposed by last month's fire at Highglen Montessori elementary school, Brian Pepper's phone lit up with calls Wednesday morning.
The callers wanted the School District 57 superintendent to explain why the burned school was being demolished before authorities could remove salvageable property left inside the school since the April 22 fire.
Pepper reassured the callers the school is not being levelled, but a partial demolition was required on the northwest corner of the building to remove hazardous material in damaged exterior walls to secure the building and alleviate safety concerns.
"It looks like they are demolishing but all they are trying to do is protect that part of the building and remove the danger of hazardous material in that corner because it's been exposed," said Pepper.
"They are going to secure it. We were required to do that according to the insurance adjuster who went through the building. I knew we needed to do that work sooner rather than later because of the exposure of that material. Right now it probably looks like a tear-down. Shortly it will look like a rebuild."
Pepper said no decision has been made about the fate of the school, whether it will be totally demolished or rebuilt. Either way, the project costs would require approval by the Ministry of Education. The fire destroyed about 10 per cent of the 36,000 square-foot building, leaving extensive smoke damage throughout the school.
"There are no belongings that will likely come out of there and nothing is coming out of there right now," said Pepper. "I don't know what the future will hold but right now, we're not removing a thing, it's not safe to do so. We're waiting for the direction of the ministry. In terms of the contents of the building and anything that can be saved, we've had no direction other than we're not able to go in and things are toxic. It's too early to speculate."
Napp Enterprises Ltd., of Prince George has been contracted to handle the demolition work.
"We have an excavator there for separating the heavy steel and we are taking down some of the structural beams," said Napp Enterprises owner Barry Barnes. "We'll demolish from the collapsed area to the next safe structural support, and underneath that structural support they'll build an infill wall, allowing for the school to be secure. Just one corner will be gone."
Barnes said the exposed walls do contain asbestos material and that will dealt with as special waste. After the demolition work is complete, another contractor will be hired to rebuild collapsed walls to enclose the building.
"Once that's done, the rest of the school will remain until the powers-that-be make their decision on what to do with it," said Barnes. "It's pretty extensively damaged from the smoke. Even the gymnasium floor, which is furthest away from the fire, is the same colour of tar paper, it's just that black."
Since the fire, students and staff of Highglen have been moved to Gladstone elementary school in College Heights.
