WACO, TX — The Waco Fire Department responded at 1 a.m. the morning of July 27th to a fire at G.W. Carver Middle School on the 1600 block of JJ Flewellen Road.
The fire department initially responded with nine fire units and 23 personnel. According to officials, the fire moved rapidly in a short amount of time so a second alarm was requested bringing the total to 23 fire units and 68 personnel.
The fire is said to have started around the front office and library area of the school and right now there is no indication of how it started.
According to Waco ISD chief of staff, Kyle DeBeer, because of the expected damage, there will likely be no school at the campus which was slated to begin in August.
"It's hard to imagine that we'd be able to hold classes here so we'll begin working through where we have additional space to host students in the fall so that all of our student that were supposed to go to Carver Middle School have a safe welcoming place to learn," DeBeer said. "The obvious candidate for that is Indian Spring Middle School."
Waco ISD confirmed students and staff will be moving to Indian Spring Middle School this coming fall semester until a new campus is built.
The Indian Spring campus has the capacity for 900 students and has 500 students of its own projected to enroll for the 2021-2022 school year. The G.W. Carver was projected to enroll about 460 students for the school year.
“I want to reassure everyone that while we’re coping with the loss of our historic campus, we’ll press forward,” said Dr. Isaac Carrier, G.W. Carver principal. “Panthers take care of each other, and Panthers take care of our business day in and day out. G.W. Carver Middle School is more than a building. It’s the people, and it’s the legacy that they carry with them each day. We will heal and thrive together. This coming school year will be different than we expected, but it can and will still be a great year.”
