Westmont readies for students' return: Classes resume Dec. 1 after extended break caused by Tea Fire

I saw this story in the paper today and thought it was worth posting.

by MARCI WORMSER, NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

Westmont College's Bauder Hall, which was built in the 1920s and housed offices and a classroom, was destroyed by the Tea Fire. MATT WIER/NEWS-PRESS PHOTOS

The Physics Building at Westmont College was completely destroyed by the Tea Fire. Above, Mark McCormick, the Resident Director of Clark Hall where many students are housed, stands in front of his home, which was destroyed by the blaze.

The area around the path leading to the Nancy Voskuyl Prayer Chapel had been burned by the Tea Fire, however the chapel itself remained untouched and in good shape.

November 24, 2008 7:17 AM

Since the Tea Fire leveled a slew of academic and residential buildings at Westmont College on Nov. 13, administrators have been focusing on making the campus ready for its 1,200 students to resume classes one week from today.

The fire, which began at the nearby Tea Gardens, gutted 15 faculty residences and nine other structures: four buildings that make up Clark Halls, Bauder Hall, the physics building, the old math building and two Quonset huts. Fourteen of the faculty homes that were destroyed were located in Las Barrancas, an area that's adjacent to the campus where the college built 41 homes for its professors.

"We want to get this place looking as back-to-normal as soon as we can for the students," said Scott Craig, manager of media relations at Westmont. Mr. Craig estimates it will take about 21/2 years to repair all the damage.

Students at the 110-acre Christian-affiliated college have been on an extended break from school since the fire gutted their campus. Students would normally start their Thanksgiving break on Wednesday and return on Dec. 1.

Although classes haven't resumed since the fire, professors have been sending students e-mails about coursework, along with podcasts of lectures, so they will be able to finish the semester as scheduled on Dec. 19, said Mark McCormick, resident director for Clark Halls. Thirty-eight students were displaced when Clark Halls burned, he added.

Although officials still aren't sure about which damaged buildings will be rebuilt, the most imminent tasks at hand to prepare the campus for the students' return, said Mr. Craig, are placing portable buildings on the campus parking lot for female freshmen whose dorms were ravished in the blaze and rebuilding Clark Halls. "Clark will be rebuilt as soon as possible," he said. Housing residences for male freshmen were also destroyed; the students will be placed in the lounge until their housing quarters are rebuilt.

In the wake of the blaze, contractors have worked on fencing off dangerous areas on campus and making small repairs to fencing and wooden bridges. In addition, an independent company was hired to repair smoke damage in the housing quarters, classrooms and offices that weren't hit by the fires, Mr. Craig said. Last week, students whose dorms burned in the blaze returned to the campus with firefighters to sift through the rubble, he said."Some were able to recover everything," he said, adding that the school's insurance policy doesn't cover the students' lost property.

A construction crew demolished the remains of the old math building; coincidentally, its demise was planned, Mr. Craig said. It and the two World War II-era Quonset huts, which housed the art department, were scheduled for demolition last week as part of Westmont's master plan. The master plan entails building a new art building and a new science and math building, a new chapel (the students currently meet in the gym for prayer services) and new residence halls. Westmont pulled the permits for phase one of the master plan construction two days before the fire, he said.

Changes laid out in the master plan encompass the first significant construction on campus in more than two decades, said Mr. Craig. The plan, which will take two to three years to complete, will add 166,000 square feet to the campus. The fire damage, he said, will probably not affect the timeline of the master plan.

Bauder Hall, an historic 1920s-era carriage house that was home to the psychology department, "will have to be bulldozed," Mr. Craig said, adding that he's not yet sure if the building will be rebuilt. The main house burned during the 1964 Coyote Fire, but the rest of the building survived -- until the Tea Fire gutted it.

While psychology, math, art and physics students wait for more permanent classrooms, their classes will be held in existing structures on campus, Mr. Craig said. A temporary building was brought in for the biology department office for phase one of the master plan, but the building may now be used as temporary classrooms, he said.

In addition to the buildings and residences, Westmont's picturesque grounds also suffered damage. The backstop of the baseball field was burned, along with acres of landscaping and trees.

Fortunately, the fire spared the Nancy Voskuyl Prayer Chapel, which was built in memory of the daughter of the first Westmont president, who was killed in a car crash in 1959. Flames singed a mountainside next to the chapel, along with a few pickets on the fencing bordering the chapel, but it left the popular wedding venue undamaged.

According to Mr. Craig, the college students he has encountered since the Tea Fire have been mostly upbeat and positive. Their strong Christian faith, he added, is the reason why they are taking things in stride.

Eight hundred students and staff -- including 140 visiting high schoolers who were taking a tour of the campus -- were ushered into the gym at 6:05 p.m. Nov. 13. when the fire erupted, he said.

"It was amazing we were able to get them all into the gym by 6:15," he said. "By 6:30, the flames were already on campus."

Strangely enough, the students were well versed in how to prepare for a disaster: "We had done an earthquake drill that morning," said Mr. Craig, adding that the school also holds at least two wildfire drills a year. The students spent the night eating snacks, listening to the choir perform and watching movies. Although some students were able to leave the gym that night, about 300 students spent the night there, Mr. Craig said.

Mr. McCormick said he was walking with some students when he saw an orange glow of flames heading toward the campus. He pulled the fire alarm at 5:45 p.m. and called 911. He ran back to his home at Clark Halls, where he serves as resident director for about 240 students, and he changed out of his flip-flops into tennis shoes. He yelled for his two cats to come out, but only one emerged. He didn't have time to grab anything else as he fled. Tragically, his home burned to the ground, and his second cat presumably perished.

While his home is rebuilt, Mr. McCormick and his wife, Nora McCormick, will be staying at a cottage house on campus that previously housed two students. Those students were relocated to a residence off campus that boasts a pool and hot tub. "So they're not complaining," Mr. McCormick said with a laugh.

"The fire was right there and we just had to get out," he said. "Like everybody, we didn't think our place was going to burn."

"I was most concerned about my students," he added. "Everybody's safe and that's the most important thing."

Mrs. McCormick takes a similar view of the tragedy.

"We hope God turns the ashes into something beautiful," she said.

The entire community is invited to a chapel service at the college on Dec. 1 -- the first day that students will return to the campus -- at 10:30 a.m. For more information about the service, titled "A Service of Hope and Renewal," or for updates about rebuilding efforts, visit www.westmont.edu.