Fire-damaged Vancouver Island school set to reopen next week

Nearly 1,000 students in Campbell River, B.C., on Vancouver Island, are set to return to school on Monday after their high school was damaged last week in a fire.

Carihi Secondary School suffered "extensive damage" to its gym, mezzanine, drama area and some classrooms, according to School District 72 Supt. Geoff Manning.

Crews from multiple firehalls in and around the Vancouver Island city were called to the fire at around 11 p.m. PT on Nov. 21, according to the Campbell River Fire Department.

The school had to be closed, and students and staff spent much of this week away preparing to return.

Manning says staff will have access to 70 per cent of the school starting Friday. Students will return on Monday, although some may be displaced, he said.

"We're going to be using spaces and in some of our schools that are close by Carihi."

"And we're going to go to some other locations in the school district to make sure that we can get a teacher in front of their students and get them back on the ball."

The superintendent said crews were working to clean up the school throughout the week, and staff would likely have access to the building on Friday after an air quality test was conducted as per regulations.

He said that the damage sustained to the school would need long-term fixes, and it wouldn't be fully rectified until after the school year.

Campbell City Fire Chief Dan Verdun said in an emailed statement that the department was still completing its investigation into the cause of the fire. He had earlier told CHEK News that it was suspected to have started in the school's kitchen area.

Carihi Secondary School is one of two high schools in the city of about 35,000 people, located more than 220 kilometres north of Victoria on Vancouver Island's east coast.