WILKES-BARRE — A fire badly damaged the St. Nicholas Elementary School library this morning, but fire doors prevented the blaze from spreading to the adjacent computer lab and the rest of the school, Wilkes-Barre Fire Chief Jay Delaney said.
A nun from the next-door convent noticed “heavy smoke” billowing out of the metallic modular classroom, which is connected to the rest of the school, and alerted the fire department about 5:30 a.m., Delaney said.
Windows in the modular classroom, which houses the library and computer lab, were knocked out late this morning, but a fire door that separates the two was closed and saved the computer lab, which looked mostly unharmed.
“If they had left that door open, it would look like it looks in here,” Delaney said, gesturing to the charred and blackened library.
The lab did suffer some smoke damage, as did the main school building. But it could have been worse.
“The policies they had in place here definitely stopped the fire,” Delaney said of the school.
A fire investigator is working to determine the cause of the fire.
School is canceled today and Friday and will resume Monday, Scranton diocese spokesman Bill Genello said.