Fire

March 21, 1935 was a horrible day in Timnath history. It began as a normal day, but turned into a catastrophe. At eleven o'clock, a footlight in the auditorium short circuited and caught a curtain on fire. At nights, the custodians cleaned the wooden floors with an oily substance. This made the fire spread very quickly.

A fourth grade class saw the fire across the hall. The first teacher who saw the fire was too short to pull the fire alarm, so she had to get a sixth grade teacher to reach it. After the alarm sounded, the whole school was evacuated in less than three minutes, and no one died or was injured. The students went either to the back fence or the front lawn thinking it was just a drill, but they looked back and saw smoke coming out of the windows. The students and teachers lost everything in the fire. Coats, hats, books, and everything else they might have were lost in the fire.

The principal went back inside the school and tried to save the school records. He was overcome by smoke and had to get out of the building. He fainted from the thick smoke and some of the students had to carry him out.

The Windsor and Fort Collins fire departments came and tried to help, but they couldn't do anything to prevent the fire from burning because the water pressure wasn't powerful enough. All that they could do was keep the fire from spreading. Timnath later constructed a reservoir in case of another fire.

School resumed four days after the fire. Organizations such as other schools, churches, and CAC (now CSU) loaned supplies. Classes were held in the church, the bank, the Fisher's home, the bus garage, and the general store (upstairs was the school and downstairs was the store). The community did whatever they could to keep the school in session, and the school finished out the year.

The principal drew the plans for the school exactly the same as it was before the fire. He knew exactly where every door was, every light switch, and the boundaries of all the rooms before it burned. The school was rebuilt exactly as it had been before the fire. The students returned to Timnath School one year after the fire.

Bilbliography

Crane, Jack. Telephone interview. 3 May 2002.
Fisher, Elsie, and Duane Fisher. Personal interview. 8 May 2002.
Miller, Del. Personal Interview. 7 May 2002.
Shader, Keith, and Barbara Shader. Personal interview. 7 May 2002.
Miller, Del, and Elise Fisher. Timnath, Fort Collins, Colorado: Columbine Club of Timnath, 1996.
Ahlbrandt, Arlene, and Kathryn Steiben. Larimer County History, Dallas: Curtis Media Corp., 1995.

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