GILROY
– Fire officials have confirmed that a stage light left on over
the weekend caused the Gilroy High School gym fire Monday which
charred a support beam.
GILROY – Fire officials have confirmed that a stage light left on over the weekend caused the Gilroy High School gym fire Monday which charred a support beam.
The lamp somehow had been turned to shine directly on the beam, causing the 98-foot piece of wood to ignite early Monday. The light had been left on, apparently since Friday night’s Grad Night party in the high school gym.
“The light could have been hit at sometime by maybe a basketball or volleyball and no one noticed that it got turned,” Capt. Ed Bozzo said. “If you’re not using those lights all the time it’s hard to notice.”
On Tuesday, workers secured the beam with a metal scaffolding.
“It was never in danger of collapsing, and it’s completely shored up now,” facilities director Charlie Van Meter said.
The burned beam will eventually be replaced, a job that will be done simultaneously with a $465,000 roof repair project scheduled well before Monday’s fire. Damage estimates for the beam have not yet been made available by the school. Damage was also sustained by the gym floor where embers from the beam fell.
“We have some spots we need to sand and polish,” Van Meter said.
Van Meter said the district’s insurance would cover replacement of the beam, but would not be used to offset any of the $465,000 project.
“We can’t really (use insurance for the roof job) because the substructure of the roof was not damaged,” Van Meter said.
Van Meter said the gym roof and support beam work would be complete before school opens in the fall.
“It’s not something that will take us so long that we won’t have it ready before school,” Van Meter said.
Principal Bob Bravo said the damaged gym would not likely impact summer school PE classes to the degree officials first believed.
The auxiliary gym weight room, located under the same roof as the main gym, was not damaged in the blaze. Also, many of the PE activities have been planned for outdoors.
Roughly 220 students enrolled for physical education courses during the summer break.
“Kids won’t have to go off campus for PE. We have a lot of space outside,” Van Meter said.
