Bro Krift and Andrew J. Yawn | Montgomery Advertiser

Wochit

Montgomery Public Schools

Booker T. Washington Magnet Principal Quesha Starks stood on South Union Street on Saturday morning, watching as an inferno ravaged her school and hardly believing what she was seeing.

"My first reaction was this cannot be real," Starks said. "But once I arrived on the scene and saw the flames coming out of Building C, I said, 'There is a blessing in all those ashes that no children or staff were in the building.'"

A fire destroyed BTW Magnet High School's Building C early Saturday, school district officials said.

The fire began about 3 a.m., Montgomery Public Schools spokesman Tom Salter said in a news release, and resulted in the "total loss" of a building that housed the visual art, photography, broadcast media and technology magnet programs as well as the library, cafeteria and counselor's offices.

But Starks refused to let the spirit of the school be lost among the rubble.

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"BTW will rise above the flames. Yes, we did lose equipment but human life is more important," Starks said.

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Creative writing teacher Foster Dickson said he was glad nobody was hurt but said the affected programs "lost a lot of history."

"My understanding is everybody lost everything pretty much," Dickson said Saturday morning. "Negatives, slides, the kids of things current seniors were going to need for their portfolios for scholarships. Broadcast, I’d imagine they lost video recordings of school events, whether visual or film. A lot of student work. A lot of records."

The building on the west side of Union Street, an administration building where Dickson teaches, was undamaged.

Classes for the school’s 411 students have been canceled for the next week. The school will be moving to the closed Hayneville Road School, Salter said, but the district needs to prepare the school before classes can start there Aug. 27.

BTW faculty and staff should report to the main building Monday morning at their regular time to assist in the move to the temporary location at Hayneville Road, Salter said.

Parents will receive more information via telephone and email during the next few days. Also, a website has been set up for information about the fire and aftermath. Click here for the page.

The fire was under control by dawn and burned for at least two hours, Montgomery Fire Department spokesman Jason Cupps said.

"Since there are two stories and a basement in this building, there are a lot of small, spot fires that they will be finding and extinguishing over the next couple of hours," he said Saturday morning.

There were no injuries reported at 7 a.m., Cupps said, and once the building was deemed safe, investigators planned to enter the school to determine a cause.

District and school officials have support calls from statewide, as far as way as Tuscaloosa and Florence. They have already offered to supply desks and other items. Alumni, churches, school employees and citizens unaffiliated with the school are offering assistance, the district said.

“I am not surprised by the offers of assistance by the citizens of our great community,” MPS Superintendent Ann Roy Moore said in a statement. “While I have only called Montgomery home for a short time, I know that people in our area care about children and education. We need that support as we continue to support BTW during this time and for all our schools as we continue to move forward.”

BTW started in 1865 as a primary school for African-Americans, according to its website. By 1937, it grew enough that a senior high school was planned, constructed and the original building demolished in 1948. An underground tunnel was constructed to connect each side of the campus.

In 1956, it became a high school, and 40 years later a magnet high school program took over the campus that housed a vocational school. The vocational center moved to Trenholm State Technical College.

Aquan Robinson graduated in 2001 concentrating on broadcast media at the magnet. He said he spent most of his high school days in the building that burned.

“I’m in disbelief," he said "I woke up and had all these text messages. It’s devastating.”

Starks' belief that the school will overcome this tragedy has only been emboldened after receiving communication from A+ Education Partnership, the Council for Leaders in Alabama, Interior Elements, churches, parents and alumni.

"Although we’ve had this tragic situation occur, the support has been remarkable. With their support, we’re going to rise above the flames," Starks said.

Reporters Melissa Brown and Brad Harper contributed to this story.