Fire destroys building at Galena's Huntington school BATTLE: Residents fought blaze in 45- to 50-below temperatures.

Fire claimed a two-story shop at the Sidney C. Huntington school in Galena late Saturday and threatened classrooms 50 feet away for a brief time as village residents battled harsh cold as well as the flames.

The temperature dipped to 45 and 50 below, freezing water lines and pumps and creating a "massive slip 'n' slide" all around the still-burning building, Galena City Manager Tom Corrigan said.

The fire started in the shop, where automotive, electrical, metal-working and carpentry classes are taught, Corrigan said. The Huntington school and the Galena Interior Learning Academy comprise two campuses with a total of about 200 secondary school students.

It was the largest fire in the village's history, Corrigan said, and it was still actively burning as 11 p.m. approached. "The entire village turned out," Corrigan said. He guessed the fire would be out by this morning.

Just before heading to get more equipment, Corrigan described the building: One wall of the 20,000 square foot shop leaned inward, Corrigan said, and the roof was mostly destroyed. The shop did not have a sprinkler system.

Adding to the difficulties fighting the fire was an abundance of fuel. The building held highly flammable acetylene and oxygen tanks for welding torches, as well as large stacks of lumber. Brave village residents ran into the shop to remove the tanks and cut the electricity, Corrigan said.

There was no indication as to what caused the fire. If a state fire marshal decided to fly to Galena to investigate, that would likely happen today, an Alaska State Trooper spokeswoman said.

Firefighters worried early on about classrooms on the older part of the school's campus, but the students' rooms are farther away from the burned shop, Corrigan said.

"Once it took the roof, it just lit up the sky for miles," Corrigan said. People in outlying areas called in to Galena to ask about the bright light they saw in the sky.

What's ironic, the city manager said, is that representatives from Galena were headed to Juneau in February to lobby for sprinklers in the shop. "All we have is a combination of a 2-inch pipestand from the school building and our water tanker, which we're shuttling back and forth from the water point," he said. "Thankfully, nobody's been hurt."

Kids that would have gone to the three classrooms Monday will be moved to a main building, according to Chris Reitan, assistant superintendent of schools for the Galena School District.

"We'll take care of it," said Reitan, who like many in the 700-resident village had been fighting the fire. "We'll just have to make adjustments."

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