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John Street Secondary School
FIRE Wednesday March 10th, 1965 |
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The Thursday editorial on 11th March read: - |
Stop grinning Smith junior! Don't you realise this is a
DISASTER boy?
Seven classrooms, five science labs, three staff rooms and a
gymnasium destroyed - cease giggling at once, Isabel!
But events that make
grown-ups grown, often make children cheer like the pupils of John Street
Secondary School in Bridgeton, Glasgow, yesterday ....... the day after
their school burned down.
Hundreds of happy children showed
their delight yesterday as firemen raked through the smouldering ruins of
their school.
The blaze began at 5 a.m. yesterday morning. One hundred firemen using
turntable ladders and hoses, fought the fire which swept through the top
storey of the main building.
Later a senior CID officer said that the school had been raided during the
night. And he stated: "At this stage it seems as though the fire was
started deliberately. Some articles have been removed for examination."
Twelve firemen fled to safety when the roof of the
building - built in 1900 collapsed in a shower of sparks. They raced down
two floors as blazing timber and masonry caved in.
When the school's 511 pupils arrived in the morning,
they were given milk and lined up in the playground, as headmaster
Mr.Charles Moore told them: "It is with regret that I must send you home"
The children cheered but Mr.Moore added: "I don't want excitement to turn
into disorder." Education officials were later trying to organise
alternative accommodation for the children. |
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Extract from e-mail, John S Holmes
(Ian), (email tba ) Bishopton, Scotland, Nov.2002, (41-50)
"
I
lived at 12 Greenlodge terrace, Bridgeton. I attended John St.Primary.
Then John St.Secondary (the old building before it was burned
down).
I actually watched the school burn from my living room
window, the chemistry labs going up in multi coloured flames. My dad
woke me and I jumped from my top bunk bed (the bunks were in the bed
recess) to see the fire in all its glory! After the fire I
travelled every
morning on the school bus to Craigie St. and returned to the new building
when it was built. I think my year was the only one to attend all three
schools. A wonderful website, both my Mum and Dad can't wait to see it, keep up the
good work."
webmaster
: thanks Ian, I was actually in your class at John St. School!
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| Nov.2007,
extract from email, Helen Munro, Glasgow, Scotland
Hi Webmaister I have a newspaper clipping from 1965 when
one of the buildings in John St School burned down. It shows quite a few
of the pupils enjoying themselves at the horrendous news...(one of them,
me).
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