Menlo Park Firefighters Douse Blaze at Ravenwood

Two portable buildings were damaged in a fire around 8:30 a.m. at Ravenswood Elementary in Menlo Park.

“No one was in the building, so no one was injured,” said Megan Curtis, Chief Business Officer for Students are on summer break until August 25.

A neighbor reported seeing smoke from the building and called it in. Firefighters responded at 8:39 this morning, according to

“Fire companies worked for over an hour to overhaul the classroom and office and to make sure fire in the overhead ceiling area was completely extinguished, and no hidden fire remained,” Schapelhouman said.

The building did not have a sprinkler system or an alarm, said Shapelhouman.

“Unlike school buildings, modular classrooms are not required to be equipped with sprinkler systems or monitored alarms depending upon their distance from the main structure or campus based upon the number of modular units or ‘pods’,” he said.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation; but Curtis said it may have been started by the air conditioning unit in the building.

One of the portable buildings was used by volunteers from the , and other organizations, for after school homework tutoring. Curtis said students will still be able to receive after school help; the programs will be moved to other class rooms.

Shapelhouman said that damages are estimated at $60-200,000.  Curtis says it is not clear whether repairs can be completed by the first day of school.