STEBBINS — Gov. Mike Dunleavy has declared a state disaster in the Norton Sound community of Stebbins, where the local school and several outlying buildings were destroyed in a fire Wednesday.
Alaska State Troopers said no injuries or deaths have been reported from the blaze.
On Thursday in Stebbins, the smell of burning rubber filled the air as residents pored over what was left of their only school. The pungent odor wafted out of piles of dirt on the north side of the ruins, where red rubber mulch once laid under the school’s playground. The melted remains of a metal jungle gym protruded from the pile as still-red-hot embers glowed in the background.
The school is a complete loss. Eight nearby buildings were also destroyed in a fire that started around 4 p.m. Wednesday. The blaze began in a shop adjacent to the school where an old boiler was kept. The fire then spread to a welding shop next door.
Stebbins resident George Dan said he received a text from a friend around 5 p.m. Wednesday that simply read “the school is on fire.” Still in his flip-flops, Dan grabbed a thick Carhartt jacket and hopped on his four-wheeler. The Stebbins School graduate didn’t hesitate to join the effort to save the structure.
“I just wanted to be there to help, I’m just trying to do my best and be a part of whatever crew there was,” Dan said. “I literally grew up in that building, I have so many memories and it’s a tragedy that it’s lost. Everybody tried, the whole community, they were all doing the best we can.”
Dan said he desperately jammed his thumb into the end of a long hose to increase the reach of the low-pressure water line, he lifted his thick jacket to insulate his face from the extreme heat. At times, he said, he doused himself with water so he could stand his ground just a little bit longer.
The blazing-hot temperatures caused the wood siding of the Stebbins School to combust. In a matter of an hour shifting winds spread the fire from the north side to the south side of the building. Residents formed a bucket brigade from the nearby Norton Sound and tossed water on the school.
As the local response unfolded, Nome Volunteer Fire Department firefighters 116 miles north scrambled to fly in help. They sent eight firefighters, hoses, water couplings and a water pump. The first team arrived around 8:45 p.m. Wednesday, with a second flight arriving around 9:15 p.m. The crews promptly got to work and installed a water pump in the ocean water.
As the fire continued to grow, local construction company Tapraq Rock used dozers and loaders to push two nearly brand-new portable classroom buildings into the blazing school. Dustin Scalisi, manager of Tapraq Rock, helped the community make what he called a “bold” decision.
“We were like, ‘Well, the school’s done’, now let’s save the portables,” Scalisi explained. “Then we were like ‘The portables are done, now let’s save the rest of everything else,’ so that’s when we took bold action and we started pushing everything in.”
Tapraq’s crew moved massive amounts of dirt to establish a perimeter. In coordination with the Nome firefighters, they successfully prevented any further spread. By 2 a.m. Thursday, the fire — and the school it incinerated — were reduced to a smoky pile of wood beams and sheets of metal.
As the people of Stebbins struggle with the fallout of the fire, leaders in the community met to light the path forward. Over 30 people crammed into the office of Tapraq Rock where its employees, as well as representatives for Stebbins and the Bering Straits School District, listened attentively as City Administrator Daisy Katcheak opened the meeting.
“Right now I’m looking at 102 homes that are disabled with no electricity, no heat. I’m worried about their freezers and children that are dependent on nebulizers and oxygen for the elders,” Katcheak said.
Representatives from regional nonprofit Kawerak and nearby village St. Michael joined the meeting by phone. Katcheak outlined her needs for the community and requested Kawerak’s assistance with fuel deliveries to keep generators running. The nonprofit provided guidance on the joint resolution Stebbins was drafting with the nearby village of St. Michael to request a disaster declaration from Dunleavy.
The declaration makes the village eligible for reimbursement for a number of recovery projects. In the joint request, Stebbins officials sought funding for improvements to the road connecting Stebbins with St. Michael in case students need to travel there for school.
The school district’s director of maintenance, Gary Eckenweiler, traveled to Stebbins to assess the situation. He issued an estimate for how long it would take for students to return to a new school.
“Stebbins will get a new school built. That’ll be three years, minimum,” Eckenweiler said. “That’s really the only good thing about this whole thing.”
A meeting will be held on Friday between Stebbins officials and district administrators to discuss the path forward. According to Eckenweiler, no option will be left off the table.
“Tomorrow’s meeting we’re going to put any potential idea for how we can get school operating in August out there, and then we’ll start whittling those ideas down to the good ones,” Eckenweiler said.
Stebbins lacks a fire department, which prompted the response by air from Nome. Many in the meeting expressed frustration at the precious hours wasted trying to fight the fire with inadequate resources.
Katcheak, the city administrator, said she paced around town through the night supporting her community. She said she didn’t sleep until 8 a.m. Thursday, and after less than two hours of rest she was right back at it.
Katcheak led the community through 2022’s Typhoon Merbok, the destruction of the village’s only grocery store in a fire just two months later, and now Wednesday’s fire. As she reflected on her turbulent tenure, she said she felt assured that her place as leader of this community is where she’s supposed to be.
“I had to go cry away from people,” Katcheak said as she recalled the night of the fire, fighting back tears. “I was asking God for something, and he kept coming to encourage me. And I said, ‘God is this — is this what I’m supposed to be doing?’”
