Laona, Wisconsin – UPI – Three hundred small children were evacuated from the burning Laona grade school building today before raging flames gutted the 44-year-old structure.
Principal Ira Abney sounded the fire alarm throughout the three-story brick building before putting in a call to the volunteer fire department.
The children, ranging from kindergarten age through the sixth grade, marched out quietly although many failed to save their outer clothing. The temperature was about 20 degrees.
Defective wiring in the building was blamed for the fire, which observers said broke out in several places almost simultaneously.
The fire was discovered by Abney about 10 a.m. Within an hour the roof toppled into the third floor and before noon the building was gutted completely. Only ice coated brick walls and smoldering rubble were left standing.
Laona volunteers, who summoned the Wabeno fire department shortly after the fire started raging, managed to keep the blaze from spreading to the high school about 70 feet away. The 250 high school students were dismissed from class.
The smaller boys and girls were herded in to the high school when first evacuated, but were later marched away when the threat of flames spreading reached its height. During the time they were under shelter near their blazing school, teachers organized singing to keep, the children from becoming frightened.
Estimates of the loss by unofficial observers reached about $80,000. All equipment in the building, constructed in 1906, was destroyed.
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Laona School Gutted by Fire, 300 Small Children Are Evacuated
Ironwood Daily Globe, Ironwood, Michigan, Wednesday Evening, November 29, 1950
