Englewood Elementary In Flames

An historical elementary school went up in flames today.  Englewood Elementary School was engulfed in flames in the middle of the night.  The billowing orange smoke against the brilliant blue sky made it painful to keep driving instead of finding a place to get out and take pictures.  The flames were seen through the smoke occasionally, and they were brilliant as well!  Icy conditions made it difficult for fire trucks to get up the hill,  where water from fighting the fire had covered the road with ice, so most of the emergency vehicles had to remain below until the day warmed up.  They created a little above ground pool where trucks brought water and filled it.  We couldn't help but find it amusing that the building burned, but the fire escape still stood!

Having been in the building recently, and seeing it in serious decline, I had mixed emotions about the fire.  Several years ago, I had high hopes that someone would purchase it and turn the fascinating old building into a large inn.  I visited a large garage sale there a couple months ago, and saw how terribly run down it had become and felt that it's chances for restoration were becoming very slim.  Now they are none.   An investigation into the cause of the fire is underway.  Very sad.