Chattahoochee Elementary School Fire
A roaring fire virtually destroyed the school, located at 2715 Peyton Road NW in Riverside, on Sept. 9, 1961. The initial alarm was sounded at 9:46 pm and required three alarms to extinguish.
21:46 Engines 28,22,23. Ladders 23,17. Acting 2nd Battalion Chief J.T. Anderson and 1st Assistant Chief C.T. Ragsdale.
21:57 Second Alarm: Engines 16, 17 Ladder 16
22:15 Third Alarm: Engines 15, 27 Ladder 7 Light Unit 1
The fire was caused by a ceramic kiln being left on in the science room of a one story wood frame with brick veneer and wooden roof deck building. Constructed in a “U” shape, the science room was the first to the east of the main entrance or right at the bottom of the “U” shape. Fire rapidly spread in both directions, both into the attic and into the basement.
Six 2-1/2 inch and two 1-1/2 inch hand lines were placed in operations assisted by cellar pipes and a ladder pipe. Sixty one firefighters worked at this alarm. Firefighter Ed Norris of Company 23 received a cut to the arm as the only injury noted.
The loss was listed as $53,000 and the school was rebuilt with the same construction and shape interestingly, by the 1980’s, population shift had caused the Atlanta Board of Education to close the Chattahoochee Elementary School. Although they retained ownership, this building was vacant until Feb. 28, 1987. On that date, the Margaret Fain Elementary School in Adamsville was leveled by fire. The Fain building was also a frame, brick veneer building constructed about the same time as the Chattahoochee facility. Classes from Margaret Fain were moved into the Chattahoochee school until the Fain facility could be reconstructed.