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A Mother’s Day residential fire sent one person to the hospital and destroyed a house in Klamath Falls.

100 years ago

Blue skies were painted black with smoke billowing from the old Summers School.

Glowing orange flames towered over the structures, consuming the smaller, wooden building in minutes. 

The blaze was intentional, set on fire by local fire crews Thursday morning as a burn-to-learn training event.

To prep the brick and wooden school buildings to burn, bales of hay and lumber were placed inside both structures, awaiting ignition.

"This will be what we call a Class A fire," said Brent Knutson, Klamath County Fire District No. 1's fire chief.

Firefighters from across the county came to participate in the exercise, with crew members from Kingsley, Keno, Bly and Klamath County Fire Districts on the scene.

Quentin Nichols, a volunteer with the Bly Fire Department, was on standby for hotspot clean up.

"Wind is coming in this direction, and every window is going to be sucking in air," he said, pointing to the broken panes of glass. "So, we're on standby in case flames jump to the dry grass or nearby trees."

Nichols said he and other crew members from Bly would be there until the last of the flames were out late in the afternoon.

Due to the dilapidated state, Knutson said, Summers School was set to be used to practice defensive firefighting.

"Defensive ... means we're not going interior," Knutson said. 

For the safety of fire crews, 15 firefighters planned to practice tinder operations from the exterior of the structures.

Seven of the participants at the site belonged to KCFD1, some of whom serve as part of an apprenticeship grant program funded by the Oregon Department of Forestry. Apprentices come from a partnership with Klamath Community College.

"We were one of two districts awarded the apprenticeship grant in the state," Deputy Chief Dylan Webb said. 

Once these new recruits are trained and ready, Webb said, the hope is that they'll stay on with KCFD1. 

"There are more jobs than there are people," Webb said, "just like any other place."

KCFD1 Fire Marshall Chad Tramp said many of the structures used in burn-to-learns are residential.

"It's always good when we can get different types of structures to train in," Tramp said. "Having larger ones gives the crews a little variety to learn from."

Tramp and Knutson said it's difficult to find suitable structures for the training exercises due to insurance standards which have to be met.

"We get around two or three calls a month from people offering a place to us for a burn-to-learn," Knutson said, explaining that most offers fall through or aren't useable. 

As the sun creeped higher in the sky, crews lit their torches and entered Summers School.

The smell of burning hay preceded trickles of gray smoke escaping through the lats of the smaller, wooden building. 

Trickles became torrents as the smoke turned dark and thick. The wooden schoolhouse was enveloped in flames 90 seconds later.

The historic and original brick building was barely smoldering by the time the smaller addition was collapsing.

Summers School was built a little over a century ago.

In 1921, the small community living near Summers Lane voted to fund the construction of a local school, costing a total of $10,000.

Klamath County Museum Director Todd Kepple said the residents in the then-rural community of Summers wanted a local school district.

"It was one of numerous small school districts around the county, roughly 50 or so, each one serving its own small community," Kepple said.

The residents in the Summers district wanted more than the traditional wooden-framed, one-room schoolhouse and chose to build a larger, brick structure.

But the Summers School served as more than just a children's facility.

"During World War II, they trained civilian pilots from the schoolhouse for the indoor portion of the training," Kepple said.

Though Naval pilots were trained at the airbase which later become Kingsley Field, the country was in need of civilian pilots as well.

About a decade after the war ended, the growth of the South-Suburban area exceeded Summers School's capacity.

After constructing Ferguson School, Summers School was closed in 1955.

Klamath County School District remained the owners of the property, unable to find someone willing to purchase it for decades.

But at the beginning of the 2018 school year, Summers School was sold to Johnny Miles for $30,000.

According to a news story from KOBI-5, Miles intended to salvage as much of the building as possible prior to demolition.

But Miles decided to offer the structures up for fire crews to use for training instead. 

Flames towered more than 30 feet above the buildings.

After the add-on wood frame building collapsed, the old gymnasium of the main schoolhouse soon followed.

With no fire hydrants in the area, water was trucked in via tankers toting 500-plus gallons.

Water supplies were then emptied into portable water tanks that fed into firehoses, expelling hundreds of gallons in a matter of minutes.

The blackened fumes climbed higher, opaque against the cloudless blue day.

As if to salute the wartime services of Summers School, nearly a dozen F-15 fighter jets took flight, cutting through the chimney of smoke. 

Though some residents have expressed dismay at the destruction of the historic building, Kepple offered another perspective.

"It's always sad to see a historic building brought down," Kepple said. "But at least this one served one final educational mission."