Children Safe but Principal Makes Sure

BUENA PARK —  Fearing that children might be trapped, a principal raced into a blazing elementary school building Monday and escaped with moderate burns.

Dick Martin, principal of Arthur F. Corey Elementary School, said afterward that he had wanted to make sure none of 125 first- and second-grade children were trapped inside restrooms.

“He (Martin) went back into the building after the children came out to see if anyone was trapped,” said Jack Townsend, superintendent of the Buena Park School District. “When he got in there, he ended up in a firestorm.”

Helga Wilson, the librarian who first spotted flames coming from the “primary” building that housed the library and six first- and second-grade classrooms, said: “Mr. Martin opened the back doors and black smoke and fire hit him in his face. He went in anyway. . . . He came out a few minutes later. His face was blackened and his hair was singed. . . . “

The 44-year-old Martin, of Irvine, suffered first and second-degree burns on his face, neck, shoulders and hands. He was treated at Humana Hospital West-Anaheim and released.

Reached at his home, Martin said he doesn’t consider himself a hero.

“I just wanted to check the bathrooms,” he said matter of factly. He credited the 35 members of his staff with averting tragedy by quickly evacuating students and personnel from the school. “I’m just so happy (about) how the staff worked. I’m just tickled to death. All the training paid off,” he said.

Buena Park firefighter Jeff Baclawski, who was among the first firefighters to enter the building in the 7500 block of Holder Street, suffered heat exhaustion. But after he was treated at the scene he helped put out the blaze.

City Fire Marshal Don Tully said the fire started in an equipment room next to the library and classrooms shortly after 1 p.m.

Wilson, who was working in the library, said she noticed flames “shooting from the ceiling.”

“When I saw the flames and the smoke I didn’t want to yell ‘Fire! Fire!’ I went to the other rooms and said, ‘We are having a F--I--R--E (spelling the word in front of the first- and second-graders). We have to leave the building.”

Teachers said the children left their belongings on their tables and marched quietly to the playground at the back of the building.

“They followed the orders like it was another fire drill,” said Teacher Joysteen Toliver. “I was a little terrified, but the kids handled it well.”

Martin, a 20-year district employee who has been principal at Corey for seven years, said that when he ran into the building he faced a “wall of flame” and remembers only a few details of his movements. He said he could not remember how he was burned, but that he escaped by pushing a pair of double doors open as the fire roared behind him.

Despite his injuries, Martin said he plans to attend a staff meeting at 8:30 this morning to assess how well school students and staff reacted to the fire. “We’re going to say how proud we are,” he said.

Forty-five firefighters from the Buena Park and Orange County Fire departments took 45 minutes to put out the blaze. The fire destroyed two classrooms and the library. The other classrooms suffered smoke damage. “They too might have been destroyed if the teachers hadn’t closed the doors to the library,” Tully said.

A preliminary estimate put damage at $120,000, he said.

Fire Chief Sam Winner said the school might not be able to use the building for the remainder of the year.

Townsend said district officials will try to find extra classroom space for the students displaced by the fire.

Toliver said the ordeal had left some students shaken. “They’re glad that they didn’t get any homework,” she said. “But they’re upset that they lost their books and sweaters. . . .And they are really upset about Mr. Martin.”

Martin said that as he was being treated for his burns at the school, he ran into a Buena Park firefighter whom he had once taught as a fifth-grader.

“He came in and said, ‘Mr. Martin, don’t ever go in a building like that again. That’s what firemen are paid to do.’ ”

Deborah Carpentier and staff writer James Newton contributed to this report.