This is Lisa Meyer in the WBZ newsroom, talking with Mike Bassichis, who is the director of the Gifford School, about the cleanup from last week's fire and what the possible cause of that blaze may have been.
We're getting ready for our entire staff to return early from vacation tomorrow whereupon we are going to move into temporary classrooms. And the other buildings that did not burn are being de-smoked. As to the cause of the fire, all we know is that we were having trouble with the pilot lights since we bought the stove in July and it had been serviced three times. Well, as a matter of fact, we think it was a malfunctioning stove that may have caused the fire. Nothing definite yet has been determined.
Have you heard from other schools or other institutional users of this stove that have had the same problem?
No. I wouldn't know anything more about the stove itself. All I know is that this fire went up so quickly that there's been a suspicion about why it went up so quickly. And it may be that there was a gas blast. But, again, this has not been determined officially by anybody.
I got you. When do kids come back to school?
Next Monday, and we will be ready for them. Monday January 4. We're just extremely thrilled that no one was hurt and that's because of the fire fighters that were here, nine of them. They're wonderful.
And I'm sure you send your thanks out to them, uh?
Well, we're sending out thanks to them in a letter or in any other way we can. I heard a story today where one of our kids actually baked some cookies and is taking it to the fire department, to give it to them.