The fire started early on a Sabbath morning - over a home leave when nobody was around - and wasn't detected until flames were shooting out the top of the building. We have our own local fire department on campus, which, I'm sure, was the key to saving the building. Our department, which is volunteer one made up of faculty and local students, was able to get the fire out about 25 minutes after it was discovered.

It was an electrical fire. A transformer malfunctioned and heated up another transformer that triggered the lights in the band room. It caught some things in a closet on fire, and the closet's framing ignited. It was one of those incidents that just happens.

Our building was not damaged tremendously by fire. The biggest damage was done by smoke. The ventilation system was on at the time of the fire. The fire burned for about four hours in the band room before it broke loose into the upper floors of the building and worked down between the 2" x 6" joists, the walls, and sockets. The ventilation system circulated smoke from the burning laminated beams, and tarred roofs, driving smoky residue into every cranny and corner. The cleaning company said that they had never dealt with such a smoky, sticky fire. Consequently, the building had to be torn down to the studs. It's a block building on the outside. There were a few rooms on first and second floors where some of the sheet rock stayed, though. Every piece of insulation and all the wiring had to be ripped out, as did all the heat ducting.

What do you do first when you have a fire? Well, our objective was to keep the program going. We sat down and laid out a game plan: Where are we going to move and how will we function? Our choir and keyboard areas went to the church. The band program went to a multi-purpose room in the basement of the administration building. That was a very frustrating experience. First of all, the lighting there was not sufficient for reading music, so we had to get floodlights and set them up. We had to set up an office for myself, put in a phone, etc. So, for about two or three weeks we were in a constant program of categorizing and prioritizing: what goes in first, what do we need, which instruments do we need to repair first, which can we get along with, which can we rent, what music do we need to get back. Getting started again was not nearly so frustrating for the choral and keyboard people, because all they had to do was replace music, and they were off and running.

We were supposed to go on a band tour in two weeks. Needless to say, we didn't get to do that. We also had an amateur hour the following weekend. We were, however, able to clean up enough equipment for those students involved to be able to participate.

Every piece of equipment in our music building had to come out--every instrument, wastebasket, chair, pencil, and picture. The first task was to find a place were we could move everything so the smoke pollution would not damage classrooms or other buildings. We were fortunate to have a heated quonset-type storage building where we used to have a Harris Pine plant, and we set up shop there.

Due to smoke and water from the spray of putting out the fire, a number of woodwind instruments had wet pads and were starting to mold in the cases. It was of immediate importance to get an instrument technician to come and make a complete evaluation of the instruments. Insurance companies will not authorize purchases or repairs until they have a professional evaluation done.

We were fortunate to have a good repair shop in Spokane. A repairman came to our campus and declared which instruments had to have new pad jobs, which ones had to be chemically cleaned, which had to be replaced - some were burned beyond use - and which just needed to be cleaned and polished.

Everything needing cleaning had to go to cleaning companies in Spokane that had ozone cleaning chambers. They stayed in the chamber anywhere from three days to a week, and the ozone would attack and redistribute the smoke molecules, killing the odor. When things came out of the chambers, they were cleaned by the cleaning company, and the bills were horrendous. The insurance company felt that it was better to do that rather than to replace everything.

Every mirror and every chair had to be labeled and inspected. The cleaning company sent several people to our campus to determine what things did and didn't need to be cleaned, and what couldn't be cleaned. Inventories had to be made and presented to the insurance brokers, and then they would give the go-ahead to purchase new music and equipment.

We also had certified technicians come and evaluate the pianos: Were they ruined by the heat and smoke? Did the moisture from the water spray rust the pegs? We had a number of pianos that were put in storage throughout the winter months, for which the insurance company paid. When they were returned to our campus, our piano technician found that a number of them were damaged.

The insurance company was gracious enough to replace them with new pianos. We could've saved those dollars if we'd inspected them at the beginning of storage in November. But at that time, the pianos appeared superficially intact - as if all they needed was to be cleaned and sent through the ozone chambers. Little did we know that the soundboards had warped and drawn away from the plating and had been ruined.

All of the percussion equipment had to be cleaned. Every membrane instrument, every head on every bongo, timpani, and snare drum had to be replaced, because ozone will not work on rubber or plastic. It 'will not take the smoke out, and it ruins rubber on anything such as straps on bass drum stands, the rubber that goes around the little pegs on xylophones and marimbas, and the rubber feet on percussion stands. So all rubber parts had to be replaced. Consequently, we decided to rent equipment. We have nearby music stores large enough to supply us with rental equipment, which the insurance company paid for.

Our band uniforms were also affected. They were nice blazer suits - 100% polyester, but were 6-8 years old. We were just ready to issue them to the students when they came back from home-leave the following Monday. Consequently, all those uniforms were in the band room, ready to be handed out. They were sent to the cleaners, ozoned twice, and cleaned three times. They looked and smelled clean, but we didn't know that it's impossible to get smoke out of polyester. During out winter band concert, the boys started perspiring and getting warm from playing, and the smoke smell started coming out. We were able to present this to the insurance company who graciously told us to purchase forty new tuxedos. This same thing happened for the choral department.

Primarily through smoke damage, but some things were destroyed. An area that took a great amount of time was private lesson music. We had approximately 140 students taking lessons at the time of the fire. All their music was stored in files on second floor. And, of course, the students did not label their music. That is a detail we slipped up on. When you issue music to students, write their name on it at that time! We were fortunate that every student storage box had a nametag on it, so when we pulled music out of the boxes, we kept a nametag with each packet of books. But it would've been very easy for the nametags to get lost. And then, when you have half a dozen students who own the same books, how would you know which book belongs to whom?

All of the music had to be taken to a secretarial pool supervised by a student teacher who was on our campus for one quarter. I had to ask for outside help; there's no way I could coordinate everything; I was not only dealing with my content area but with building reconstruction, and the keyboard and choral teachers were working with their problems.

I had 64 instrumental students' books to deal with plus ensemble and band music. Every book had to have the title, publisher, and composer written down on an inventory sheet, every piece of sheet music, every method book. Then it had to be evaluated: Does this book's smoke damage warrant its replacement, or can it be cleaned? Can it be sent through the ozone chambers and then wiped down with chemical sponges? Our secretarial pool worked for nearly one solid week on that information.

When those books returned from the ozone chambers, we had to know whom they belonged to. We also had to know which books had been discarded due to damage and which needed to be replaced. The music students had already paid for their books at the beginning of the year. Inventory had to be kept on discarded materials, and big orders taken into Sampson-Ayers Music in Spokane. They had to contact many music stores around the U.S. to try to get the quantity of method books and materials that we needed. And then, as the music came back from the ozone chambers and the cleaning company, we were able to give it back to the students. It had to be checked off. Here was what was in your box when we took it out, and now you've received all your music back. Talk about a nightmare!

All of our current band music was in the folders, which were open on the stands. Everything was smoked and sooted so badly that it was impossible to keep. We had to order all new music - over 20 compositions between our secular and sacred repertoires. All band and ensemble music in the library files was taken into the ozone chambers. The job became so gigantic and hectic that we didn't even bother to inventory. The cleaning company just set the files in the chambers, opened the doors, turned on the ozone, killed the smoke smell, and then cleaned the composition as a complete unit. We were not concerned about losing a band or ensemble composition at the cleaning company, because it would've taken us weeks on end to categorize all of that material. However, our cleaning company was fantastic - very meticulous - and there was not one pencil, mouthpiece, or piece of music lost through this entire ordeal. When we finished with the music detail in February or March, there were only three or four pieces that were out of print that we could not replace.

We were always under the assumption that we did not have insurance on student instruments. Every year I would tell the students that they were to take their serial numbers down, send them home and have their parents place them on their homeowner's policy. They would then collect insurance money if something happened to their instrument. And this is true; it works for some parents. But many, many parents told me that their home insurance does not cover things such as instruments, or others would have a $250 deductible, which was more than their used instrument was worth. We did find a clause in our policy covering student instruments up to a maximum of $6000.

It was a blessing of the Lord that we did not lose one student instrument. Several doors burned and fed on instruments, and burned them to a crisp, but all the instruments lost were school-owned. There were student instruments sitting on either side of these. When we were through with our repair bills for student instruments, it was between $5500 and $6000.

Although we didn't lose any student instruments, we had a tremendous amount of loss in cases. I had acquired a number of instrument and case catalogs over the years, so it was easy to sit down and order replacements. We purchased approximately 25 student instrument cases and 23 school cases. It was quite a challenge to come up with cases that would fit the various instruments that the students owned. Now, true, you can purchase a lot of generic cases - Allied makes cases that will fit any and every instrument, but the quality of the cases is sometimes not equal to, say, an Armstrong saxophone case. Consequently, the insurance company was insistent that if a student had a Bach Stradivarius trumpet, he receive a Bach Stradivarius case. I must say that Hamel Music Company was one of my biggest sources of help, because they live so close to a number of factories and have contacts there. Their service was more than I could ask for, superior to any local music store that I have access to, even though Spokane has some rather large music stores.

Keeping band morale up was a real challenge. The band was not able to function for at least three weeks. We would have spaghetti feeds - do something to maintain group identity and continuity. Our biggest concern was for the students not to start feeling like "Oh, this is really fun at 5:18 not to have to go to rehearsal. We can go to supper early, or we can go to the gym." Consequently, they could go and drop the program, having found something more important (or less challenging). But that did not happen to us. It just shows the dedication and zeal that kids can muster if they really want to.

We continually kept them updated in our chapels as to when we'd be starting the lesson program, when the band and ensemble programs would start, as well as updates as to how their practice program was going to run. We needed to continually present an organized, ongoing picture to them so that they felt that somebody was working on the project all the time and things were being accomplished. A morale slump can set in really fast when there is no communication. You can become so busy with other details that you just assume that they'll all be around when everything's put back together. Luckily for us, they were.

And, of course, all of the faculty rallied to the challenge. It was a fantastic experience to have the faculty, the administration, and the school board rally behind the program when it could have been a tremendous catastrophe.

Well, the instrumental students had to practice in the dorms. We set up practice rooms in the prayer, worship, and recreation rooms. Talk about a nightmare to continue to monitor that type of program! We had student monitors that would go to the dorms and take record twice in a period. We appealed to the students, "If you want to progress, it's your choice. if you want to cheat, you can. We will check on you twice in a period, and you don't know when we're coming. If you're not in the practice room during those two times, you will be counted absent." It was amazing how the students rallied, even though there was a lag in lessons for a period of time and they had to practice in an awkward situation, and how the program kept going and growing.

Yes, it turned out to be quite a successful year. We continued on, presenting a choral program in December, and a winter band concert in January. We were able to have our Band Clinic in March, even though we had no facility to work in. We operated out of our gym. The results of the band clinic were tremendous, gauging in what happened this school year at registration. One-third of the student body tried out for Concert Band. I know it was the direct result of a very organized and impressive band clinic the year before.

Yes. When you have a lot on your mind - instruments, music, and how to label and keep track of everything and deal with the insurance company - it's quite a challenge to start putting a building back together. Where do the outlets go? What size mirrors? Were the lobby lights over here or in this spot? How many were there? Those are details that would have been very frustrating to deal with, had I not been here for many years. Although I knew my music building like the back of my hand, I still ended up missing a couple of lobby lights.

Of course, the fun part and the blessing came when our building was put back together. It was completely redecorated, and reassembled better than it had been built. The interior decorating featured pleasing, modern colors. We redesigned the band room with new risers and added another riser. We were able to put in a lot more insulation to make it warmer. We also tapered the roof in order to have runoff rather than leakage. As the young people saw these things progress, the enthusiasm set in: Nothing is more exciting than to be involved in something new - new paint, new carpet, new colors, new designs. The insurance company policy stated that we could replace things as they were, but we were not able to make wholesale changes in the building design. We were able to move a wall, enlarge an area, put in a new window, and while we were working on the building, we did make some design modifications, at school expense.

I think so. We felt that the lack of continuity in the lesson program would damage us in the next school year, because we were not able to develop the younger students as well without an organized method program. But our fears were unfounded. When school started this fall, we found that the band program was stronger than last year, with more new students involved. The enrollment in band and choir is larger, the equipment is better, and the building is brand new.

Even though we did two years in one, while we were working so hard to put it together, now it is a very enjoyable experience to walk into a new music building in which everything works. There are no complaints about the plumbing or the lighting, or switches not working, or things deteriorating. Consequently, each teacher has more time to spend in his teaching area. Our program has not changed that much from any other year. If anything, it has been enhanced by the aesthetics of the building.

We also benefited from the public relations opportunities the fire provided. We were able to have open house after the building was completed, which brought many into the building who may never have paid attention to it before. We had a big constituency meeting and ribbon-cutting ceremony that brought focused attention on our music program. We were able to have a number of articles printed in our union paper about what happened and where we're going. Articles were featured in the school paper, as well. Parents were very pleased. So these things were all rewards in the end.

It was a learning experience for them in realizing that they had always taken things for granted - that the music department was always there. Never had they visualized the handicaps they would have to practice with: rented instruments that might not play like theirs, missing method books and having to wait for them to come, playing in little rooms not designed for practicing. They learned what it is to work under adversity.

I learned to have my facts and figures organized when dealing with the insurance company. When you talk to these people, have your dollar figures and quotes ready on replacement values and cost, manufacturers and dealers to be dealt with. Then be able to justify why these things have to be replaced. We were blessed in the sense that GenCon [the church's insurance company] was great to work with. The underwriters and adjusters were fantastic - more than liberal and generous when it came to replacing equipment. If there was a need, and they saw it, it was most welcome.

There are a number of things you can do to make your job easier if you have a fire in a music building. One of the things I wish that I had done was to keep an accurate, current inventory of our materials in a location other than in the building. We have kept music file cards for band and ensemble pieces, solos and method books, a very accurate list, but we did not think to keep a copy of that list somewhere else. If our building had been completely destroyed, we would have been into some serious problems. One really should go through and write down serial numbers of all school instruments as well as titles, authors, and publishers of all band and choral compositions, ensemble music, method books. Place it all on a floppy disk or whatever type of filing system you want, and store it somewhere other than your own building.

Another important step to take is to record the serial numbers for each student-owned instrument. Take one rehearsal session and have the students pass by a student worker who will write down all the information - brand, model, and serial number. When you have 14 flute players and 6 or 8 of them play Armstrong flutes, and the models are very similar, it is frustrating to come up wondering who owns what instrument. And if you have school instruments mixed in with those, they have to be kept separate, because GenCon requires such a differentiation. It was quite a guessing game trying to figure out who owned what instrument.

I guess you never prepare for disaster, because you never think it can happen to you. Even though I was involved in a departmental fire in college, that was somebody else's problem; I related to it only as a student. But it did help me organize my thoughts somewhat more easily. Recovering from a fire is an experience that you cannot fully plan for. Every day was a long, hard challenge. With God's help, we were able to weather the storm.

It was only in February of this year (the following school year) that we actually completed the project. Summer vacation came and a lot of the little details were left undone. We'd be sitting in our upholstered chairs, and we'd start smelling smoke on our clothes, after those chairs had been cleaned. And we'd find out that they couldn't get the smoke out, and the insurance company would say, replace them. So back to town we'd go. Talk about one big shopping spree! We had Christmas all year long. Then once the contractors and crews leave, it's hard to get them to come back and finish little details. It has taken from the beginning of this school year until this February to complete the saga of a year that I never want to live through again, even though it was a fantastic learning experience.

Yes. Many things were Providential, such as the witnessing we were able to do. We became very close to the insurance and cleaning people, purchasers, contractors, electricians, and others throughout the year. We gave these people complimentary reserved seats for our spring concert, and dedicated it to them for putting out building back together. We had them stand and describe their position and contribution. This let the students and parents see who was in charge of the reassembly.

What a warm, tremendous feeling developed between those people and our school! Here were contractors who'd been working here all year, but they didn't really know what they were working on, just a facility. They'd seen the kids running around campus, but now here they were in a concert and were able to hear the band, choir, and keyboard students perform. They could then really see just what their efforts had been for. And were they ever impressed that these were just high school kids! They all commented that they had no idea that they were coming to witness a concert like that.

Yes, the rewards were many, and the experience was great. If anyone ever runs into a problem like this, I'd be most willing to assist in any way that I can in helping them through their frustrating experiences. Hopefully, our tragedy, rewards, and joys can be shared with others, and perhaps will benefit somebody someday.