Penyrheol Comprehensive School (where I used to do an evening football class, and a team which our school rugby team played against regularly) has been razed to the ground by fire.

Mum lives very near to the school and noticed “what looked like a house on fire” at about 01:30 and was about to call the emergency services when she saw blue lights so observed the events as they unfolded.

Two hours later (03:30) in gale force easterly winds, the fire continued to blaze – Emergency services swarmed all over the local roads to the west of the school, sensibly keeping out of the smoke when it’s not necessary.

Mum reported seeing people up ladders and hearing things exploding.

By 05:00 the fire was under control, but extensive damage had occurred. A large proportion of the school has been razed: science, business, computing, staff areas, dining rooms & kitchens all flat to the ground.

Surviving the fire

The Leisure Centre which adjoins the school to the east (a favourite for kids birthday parties) has slight smoke damage. The English and Maths departments have survived, but a lot of coursework and school records have been lost. There is some hope that work which teachers and kids did on computers (including assignments and grades) is likely to exist in different forms on home computers, laptops and on backup disks in various places, so it’s not as complete a loss as it would have been just a few years ago.

Photos

Clicking on each photo will take you to a flickr (photo sharing) page where you can download high resolution copies.

Press Coverage

The story has been picked up by the BBC, and as other agencies publish reports, they’ll be listed here (archived stories here).

Google Earth Location / Model

This is a Google Earth placemark which identifies the school’s location, and includes a (fairly simple) 3d model of the former building illustrating what’s been destroyed.

Previous Fire

The school was rebuilt in 1976 after a fire destroyed the previous buildings. A couple of photo’s of that fire are available on the web at the Gorseinon History Archive (here and here).