By Cheryl Johnston Sadgrove
The News & Observer (Raleigh, North Carolina)
Copyright 2006 The News and Observer
CARRBORO, N.C. — The Carrboro Fire Department extinguished a small fire at the building site of Carrboro High School late Wednesday night.
Firefighters responded about 11 p.m. to a call from a resident in the Rock Haven Road area who smelled smoke and could not identify the source, said Fire Chief Travis Crabtree.
The firefighters saw an orange glow on the future high school’s roof and used an aerial truck to douse the fire with water, he said.
The fire burned a 12-foot-by-12-foot patch of insulation on the roof worth about $4,000. The building’s structure was not damaged, Crabtree said.
The school is still on schedule to open next fall, said Steve Scroggs, assistant superintendent for Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools. It will be the district’s third high school and will have about 800 students, officials projected last year.
The cause of the fire has not been determined, Crabtree said.
Interviews with construction workers indicated that roofers have not been on top of that section of the building for a month. Investigators have ruled out lightning and electricity and are considering whether some combination of construction materials and epoxies could have ignited the fire, Crabtree said.
The firefighters were not able to ignite the insulation during tests Thursday, even using a torch, he added. The insulation has a Class A fire rating and was not yet covered with shingles but with a waterproof rubberized cover.
“It’s quite puzzling, and we’re continuing to work on it,” Crabtree said.