Fire Closes School For A Week

Staff at St. Francis Preparatory School in Fresh Meadows washed cafeteria equipment after a fire at the school this past Sunday. The school will be closed until Friday, October 25 for cleaning and repairs. The fire broke out in the cafeterias kitchen office in the schools basement. Brother Leonard Conway, principal of the school, said that police and fire officials had told him they deemed the blaze suspicious.
Asked if he had any thoughts about who might have started the fire, Conway said, "It certainly was not one of our students. I leave [the investigating] to the experts. Im just trying to get the place cleaned up."
Conway said that one of the Catholic brothers who lives at the school smelled smoke when he awoke at about 7 a.m. Sunday morning. He went downstairs to investigate with one of the schools football moderators who was also on site, and saw smoke in a hallway. The two then called the Fire Department and the fire was extinguished by 8:20 a.m.
A Fire Department spokesman said that 12 units, or about 60 firefighters, responded to the call. Conway said the fire marshal had told him that the blaze probably began between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m.
Though St. Francis Prep students are off most of this week, they will lose a vacation day that was scheduled as a teacher conference next week and will also attend school on All Saints Day, November 1, when classes are usually canceled.