Multiple rooms damaged by fire at Dos Palos High. Classes canceled for at least one day

Class was canceled Wednesday at Dos Palos High School after a fire broke out in a classroom, school officials said in a Facebook post.

The Dos Palos Ora Loma Joint Unified School District said classes at other campuses in the district would go ahead without interruption.

The fire began around 6 a.m. in a 10,000-square-foot wing of the campus, causing fire damage to two classrooms and smoke and water damage to two others, according to Assistant Chief Mark Pimentel of Cal Fire Merced County.

He said smoke and fire was visible as firefighters arrived in the rooms containing desks, computers and other typical classroom materials. The flames had been contained and crews expected to remain on scene for at least four more hours as of 8 a.m.

Pimentel said the wing was in an older portion of the campus, but he did not immediately know when it was built.

“Due to the fire at Dos Palos High School and the need to turn off the power, there is no phone service district-wide,” the district said in a statement.

Officials listed a number of cellphones that were available to parents.

Students and parents were asked to stay away from the high school campus until further notice.

Fire crews assisted from Merced, Atwater, Madera, Firebaugh and Chowchilla, Pimentel said.

The campus has been damaged by flames before. The school saw a fire in 2009 that sent 760 students home early when flames swept through the wood, auto and agriculture mechanics shops.

Sensors in the industrial arts building set off the fire alarm, but there were no sprinklers, Cal Fire said at the time. Both buildings were built in the 1950s and never retrofitted for sprinklers.