Man charged with arson in Hornby Island school fire, police say
School officials and parents hoping to make classes ‘as normal a start up as they can’
Police say a person has been arrested and charged with arson for the fire that gutted Hornby Island Community School.
Comox Valley RCMP said the man has been charged with one count of arson damaging property in connection with the blaze. Police said he was arrested Sept. 3.
The fire began during the early hours of Aug. 26 and destroyed roughly one third of the school. Fire crews spent over 12 hours fighting the flames.
It was started with little more than a week to go before students returned to class and left authorities and parents scrambling to develop alternate plans.
Classes moved
The school's kindergarten-to-Grade 7 students are having their first week of classes at the Tribune Bay Outdoor Education Centre — a camping and adventure leadership facility that has everything from high rope courses to kayaking.
"It sounds like they are going to get to do a few of those activities but also just try and get back to business as usual," said Andrea Kabak, the chair of the local parent advisory committee.
She has two daughters attending Hornby Island Community School.
Hornby Island lies just off the east coast of Vancouver Island, around 100 kilometres northwest of Nanaimo.
"The kids will be doing just half days there this week while staff take some time to get themselves organized for the coming week," Kabak told Gregor Craigie, the host of CBC's On The Island.
"The staff are really focusing on having it be as normal a start up as they can for the kids."
Long road ahead
The original school building will take about 18 months to rebuild in a best-case scenario, Kabak said, and school officials are scrambling to sort out classroom space.
"It's going to be a long road ahead of us," she said.
After the first week at the adventure centre, the students will move to a community centre near the school fields —so they can still access the playground — while a modular school unit is sorted out.
"The kids are upset but they are also pretty resilient," Kabak said.
"My kids are just really excited to start school today."
With files from On The Island and CHEK News