KENNER, La. – Firefighters say a fire heavily damaged a historic high school in Kenner overnight.
Kenner officials say a concerned citizen reported seeing flames coming out of the old Kenner High School building at 1601 Rev. Richard Wilson Drive around 12:32 a.m. Firefighters arriving at the scene found the building fully involved in flames with smoke coming from second-floor windows and the entire roof.
The fire was put under control, but firefighters are still trying to fully extinguish the flames. Residents in the area are urged to stay indoors and close their windows because smoke is still coming from the fire.
Kenner officials are promising further updates as more information as conditions in the area improves.
Acting Fire Chief Stan Genovese said the school’s timbers allowed the flames to spread quickly and caused heavy embers to fall from the building.
“Sometimes fires look simple, but our teams handled the obstacles to protect what we could. It’s unfortunate that the historic building may be a loss, but there were no injuries of first responders. The skeleton remains as we continue to extinguish the fire,” Genovese said.
The school is a historic landmark that housed classes from 1924 to 1996. The last senior class graduated in 1955 before it became a junior high school.
The building was included in the National Register of Historic Places in 2008. It was named among New Orleans area’s nine most endangered historic sites by the Louisiana Landmark Society in 2012. Kenner was recently awarded a grant to restore the building to put it back to public use.
“It’s sad because we were on our way to replacing the roof and had future plans to restoring the building,” Kenner Mayor Ben Zahn said.
The State Fire Marshal’s office will be notified to conduct an arson investigation once the building is deemed safe to enter.