By This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Herald Writers

Listen to recorded dispatch of the Sno Isle Fire 

EVERETT -- Students watched in dismay Tuesday afternoon as their classrooms and projects were consumed in a fire that tore through a vocational high school building in south Everett.

The three-alarm blaze at the Sno-Isle Tech Skills Center on Airport Road likely was sparked accidentally by construction workers involved in a nearly $9 million remodel.

There were no major injuries.

As dozens of firefighters poured water from ladder trucks onto the building, huge clouds of black smoke billowed into the sky. People driving through the area were engulfed in smoke. The dark plume was seen as far away as Brier.

Water from fire hoses filled the streets and turned a lane of Airport Road into a river.

Wind gusts, recorded at more than 40 mph at nearby Paine Field, fanned the flames. Fire dispatchers pleaded with Everett and Mukilteo water departments to increase water pressure to hydrants in the area.

Crews from around Snohomish County joined in the fire fight, but the flames had the upper hand. The building couldn't be saved.

"The whole building is going to burn. It's just a matter of time," Everett Assistant Fire Chief Joe Johnston said Tuesday evening while crews were still fighting the flames.

Construction crews told firefighters they were cutting metal on the roof. Sparks ignited material just after 3 p.m. The construction workers tried to douse the blaze but it quickly got away from them, Johnston said.

The fire started in an attic space and spread quickly, Everett Fire Marshal Glen Martinsen said.

As the roof burned, the opportunity to attack the fire from the inside quickly diminished, he said.

Once emergency crews determined no one was inside, firefighters took up defensive positions outside in an effort to protect the rest of the campus.

Heavy black and brown smoke and flames continued to thrust into the sky Tuesday evening. One of the doors on the west side of the building suddenly burst open and cascades of water came pouring out.

One firefighter suffered minor injuries when he slipped while moving equipment in a parking lot, Martinsen said. The firefighter was later released from the hospital.

The building was still smoldering late Tuesday, and crews planned to stay on scene through the night.

When crews were called, high school students already had left classes for the day and school officials believed no one was inside the building.

Several dozen people lined up against the fence along Airport Road, taking pictures and talking on their cell phones.

Sno-Isle students Lauren Reining, 17, of Everett and Nathan Jenkins, 17, of Mukilteo rushed to their school when they heard it was on fire.

"It's sad," Reining said. "And it's scary that it could have happened while we were there."

The two had class in the building earlier Tuesday.

"It's going to be a major disruption," said Tom Clemans, a Sno-Isle teacher for 17 years, who watched the flames.

Classes at Sno-Isle have been canceled today, Mukilteo School District spokesman Andy Muntz said. The district oversees the center. Officials are expected to make an announcement today about the rest of the week.

A job fair planned at the center today that was expected to attract 600 people also was canceled.

Sno-Isle offers a spectrum of courses, such as welding, fashion design and firefighting, to students from more than a dozen school districts. It's one of 10 centers around the state with job training programs that would be too expensive to offer at every high school.

Six of the school's programs were housed in the building, one of several on the campus. The classes in the destroyed building included programs for culinary arts, Web programming, dental assisting, medical assisting, nursing assisting, and computer services and networking.

The building also housed the school's administrative offices and the popular student-operated Le Bistro restaurant.

School officials will assess the damage today to determine how long classes will be canceled and to develop a plan for the students who are enrolled in the programs that were at the building, Muntz said.

An $8.8 million construction project was to significantly change the face of the campus, with 23,000 square feet of new classrooms and 26,000 feet of remodeled classroom space.

The Mukilteo School Board approved the contract with JTM Construction in March and work began in recent weeks.

Seven new programs are being added, including classes for aircraft service technician training, auto body collision repair, low-voltage electrical work, ­DigiPen game programming, and courses that will explore solar and environmental energy.

Sno-Isle is home to about 835 high school juniors and seniors, who split time between the vocational campus and their high schools.

The school district has insurance for the building, Muntz said.

Most of the building was vacated because of construction.

Tuesday's fire was the biggest in Everett since the $1 million blaze at the Stewart Title fire on June 25.

The city is appealing a ruling by the state Department of Labor & Industries that found problems with the department's response to that blaze.

Ashley Melander, 18, is enrolled in a dental assisting class at the school. She drove to the campus from her internship at a Marysville dental office Tuesday evening to get a closer look and to snap some photographs of the burning school building, which includes her classroom and dentistry equipment.

"It's just really hard to deal with this, because we work so hard," the Lake Stevens High School senior said.

James Wilson, 38, an Everett Community College student who was taking a nighttime machining class at Sno-Isle, said the black smoke was extremely thick, making driving difficult in some spots around Airport Road and Highway 526.

The smell changed from a wood to tar-like odor, he said.

"It's really a lot of smoke," he said. "At one point, I couldn't see past my hood."

Reporter David Chircop contributed to this story. Pics of Fire