Probe under way in Dexter School fire

This is all that remains of the main building

at Dexter Attendance Center following a fire

late last Friday afternoon.

(McComb Enterprise-Journal photo)

DEXTER, Miss. — Fire destroyed the 70-year-old main building at Dexter Attendance Center late Friday afternoon and an investigation is under way to determine the cause. Two adjacent buildings were not damaged.


Firefighters from Washington  Parish joined firefighters from Walthall, Marion and Amite counties in battling the blaze, which was discovered about 5 p.m. Fire destroyed the main school building, but firefighters were able to save side and rear structures.

Dexter traditionally had competed against Pine in high school athletics and it is only about 13 miles between the two communities. Residents of the area interact on a regular basis and youth in Pine, Thomas and Dexter grow up knowing one another.

“When I got there I probably saw 10, 15 trucks, tankers, and firemen were everywhere. A lot of them were totally
exhausted,” Walthall County arson investigator Bobby Walthall told the McComb Enterprise-Journal. “They had been there fighting that fire for hours in the heat. Nobody had any dry clothes on.”

“I’m so proud of those firemen. They just really went above and beyond, I thought,” McGinnis said.

McGinnis reported the fire to the state fire marshal’s office but said it’s too early to know the cause.

“That’s a 75-year-old building or older and it had ancient wiring in it. (With) a power surge, you don’t ever know. That was the old-type construction made with the best wood available back then, which was heart pine.”

Some teachers had been working at the school until late in the afternoon but were gone when the fire broke out, he said.

Firefighters fought the blaze until nearly 10 p.m.

“I am so thankful the kids were not there,” said Superintendent of Education Danny McCallum. “That’s most important right now. We just finished the school year, so if it had to happen it was at a good time.”

The burned building contained the school offices, records, a computer lab and around eight classrooms. Undamaged were elementary buildings, a new science building and a gymnasium built after Hurricane Katrina damaged the old one.

“I could hear the computers going up,” McCallum said. “I could hear them popping. It just sounded like a big balloon. I heard 20 or 30 of those go off. It was unbelievable, that fire, the strength of it. That heart pine was just unstoppable.”

McCallum said the school board will discuss the situation at a budget meeting 10 a.m. Monday.

“We’re just going to focus right now on cleaning up and whatever paperwork we need to do,” he said. “We’ve got records we’ve got to think about.”

The K-12 school contained student folders, teacher paperwork, plus trophies, photos and other memorabilia.

The building was insured, as are all the school district buildings, McCallum said.

“We have worked real hard this year to try to restore that school, with test scores,” McCallum said. “I say we — that staff down there. We were really planning for a great year next year, and then had the wheels knocked out from us so to speak.”

As for the future of the school, “it’s too early to say,” McCallum said. “That would actually be a school board decision. They’ve got to put a lot of thought into it. It’s going to be a big issue.”

The school has an enrollment of less than 300 students, and there may be enough remaining class space to hold them, at least for now.