Fire heavily damages Mtn. View HS baseball team building, but gear saved

Small wooden building also used as locker room; failed heater the cause

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- A fire traced to a failed electric wall heater heavily damaged a small wooden building used as the locker and storage room for the Mountain View High School baseball team Tuesday evening, but the school was not threatened and the gear inside was saved, a fire official said.

The fire was spotted and called in around 6:15 p.m., less than an hour after the Cougars baseball players had wrapped up practice, those on scene said.

While some who called in the fire thought it was a concession stand, Bend Deputy Fire Marshal Dan Derlacki said the 30-by-30-foot, nearly 40-year-old wood-frame building was used by the baseball team as a locker room and for equipment storage, located southwest of the gym and near the football field.

The fire was knocked down within about 10 minutes of crews arriving, Derlacki said, despite a long hose lay to the nearest fire hydrant, at the parking lot about 75 yards away. There was no threat to the main school building, several hundred feet away.

As a result of the quick knockdown, the damage was mostly to the building’s exterior and attic. Derlacki said while the building is likely a complete loss, most of the contents were saved.

After firefighters removed the gear from the building, baseball team coaches and players helped move it to a safe location, to be cleaned, dried and used again, the fire official said.

No injuries were reported. Losses totaled about $20,000.