BAKER CITY — A fire that started Wednesday morning, May 22, severely damaged Baker City’s historic Central Building school, near Baker Middle School at Fifth Street and Washington Avenue.

The 108-year-old building was empty.

It has not been used as a school since 2009.

Buzz Harper, chief of the Keating Rural Fire District, who said he was incident commander for the first hour or so of the firefighting effort, said the building was “gutted.”

He said that although the risk of the fire spreading was all but over by 1:30 p.m., the building is likely to smolder for days.

The roof started to collapse relatively early, Harper said.

He said flames he estimated at 60 feet in height were extending from the building. Because the situation was so dangerous, with the roof falling in, and because the building is vacant, firefighters stayed outside to fight the fire, pouring hundreds of thousands of gallons of water on the structure, Harper said.

He said Jason Jacobs of the Baker City Fire Department took over as incident commander.

The Baker City Fire Department, the first of many agencies to respond, arrived around 6:35 a.m. Smoke was pouring from the southwest side and part of the roof of the 57,000-square-foot, three-story structure at the time.

Crews initially focused on the southwest corner, where a small structure is attached to the main building near the tennis courts.

As of 2 p.m., neither the fire department nor the Oregon State Fire Marshal’s Office had released any information about a potential cause for the fire.

Baker City Manager Barry Murphy said investigators will start their work once firefighters are finished.

The Central Building was constructed in 1916 and opened in 1917 as Baker High School. It served as the high school until 1952.

The school district used the building as part of the middle school campus for several decades before closing it in 2009.

Volunteers from multiple rural fire protection agencies responded. The La Grande Fire Department brought its ladder truck to join Baker City’s ladder truck. The Ontario Fire Department was also asked to help.

Rain fell at times during the morning as firefighters poured water on the structure.

All streets around the school were closed, and classes were canceled at Baker Middle School Wednesday and Thursday.

Students who were already on a bus were taken to a site where they were picked up by parents.

Several homes in the immediate area were evacuated, Baker City Police Chief Ty Duby said.

Ivy and Ernie Nelson, who live at Sixth Street and Court Avenue, just across Sixth Street from the tennis courts at the southwest corner of the Central Building property, were among the residents who left their homes temporarily.

Ivy Nelson, who has lived next to the historic building for more than 30 years, said “it breaks my heart” to see the damage.

She said she has seen people, who appeared to be homeless, enter the small structure attached to the building near the tennis courts, apparently to get out of the weather.

Duby said Baker City Police have also received reports of people trespassing in that area.

Lindsey McDowell, public information and communications coordinator for the Baker School District, said district officials have “received reports regarding potential trespassers in the past that resulted in sweeps of the building, changing/re-keying locks, chaining exterior doors, and boarding up windows to help keep the building secure.”

McDowell said she wasn’t aware that any of those reports mentioned the small structure near the tennis courts.

The Baker County Courthouse, at 1995 Third St., one block east of the Central Building, was closed around 10:30 a.m. and workers sent home due to smoke in the building. The Courthouse was expected to reopen on Thursday, May 23, according to a press release from the county.

Stephanie Sanders, who lives at Seventh and Washington, one block west of the west side of the Central Building, said she was preparing for her morning routine with her daughter, who’s 3 1/2, and her two nephews, ages 1 and 4, when she heard sirens and saw fire vehicles heading west on Washington.

Sanders said she could see flames on the building’s roof.

Although her home was outside the evacuation area, Sanders said she is “keeping a close eye” on the situation in case she needs to leave with the three small children and her elderly father, who also lives with her.

Sanders said the wind, fortunately, was pushing the smoke away from her house.

“Thank goodness, because I have asthma,” she said.

Sanders said the three children were captivated as they watched firefighters, including one stationed at the top of the ladder on the city’s biggest truck.

She said her older nephew, while watching, said “firefighters are going to save the world.”

Building’s history, and recent renovations

The Central Building, constructed with a facing of tuffstone mined near Pleasant Valley, was designed by Ellis F. Lawrence, the first dean of the School of Architecture at the University of Oregon.

In 2011 the Historic Preservation League of Oregon added the Central Building to its list of the state’s Most Endangered Places.

After the new high school opened in 1952, the school district used the Central Building as part of the BMS campus for decades.

Baker Technical Institute received a $500,000 grant in 2020 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to replace the building’s leaking roof, a project that, after delays due to the pandemic, started last fall and was recently finished with caulking, said Doug Dalton, BTI president.

BTI also planned to remove asbestos flooring and lead-based paint this fall, Dalton said, but that project was still in the planning stages.

He called the fire a “horrible loss for the community.”

“There’s a lot of sentimental value there,” Dalton said. “It’s a tough day for all involved.”

Dalton said BTI’s goal was to make the building usable for some other purpose.

“It’s really unfortunate timing,” he said.

Dalton said workers have removed many of the objects from the school, including desks.

“It’s basically an empty building,” he said.

In 2006 the school district considered remodeling the Central Building. In 2009, when the school board decided to close the building and declare it surplus property, the structure housed the BMS wood shop as well as music, cooking and sewing programs and art classes.