[Photograph 2012.201.OVZ001.1951]

Photograph used for a story in the Oklahoma City Times newspaper. Caption: "Woodwork and auto mechanics students started a man-sized slvage job and band members camped on the cafeteria stage Thursday, but other Star Spencer highschool classes proceeded as usual. All the teachers and many students looked sleepy though. They had been up most of the night watching flames melt away and important chunk of the new school's facilities. Reduced to smoldering embers by dawn was a complex of surplus air force warehouses used to as shops, band and physcial education headquarters. The gire of unknown cause had erupted about 9 p.m. and raged until the structure caved in at 2:30 a. m. C. W. Earnest, principal, said loss apparently will top $100,000. Complete inventories, and insurance coveragemust be tabulated before replacement cost can be estimated he said.......Oklahoma City, Nicoma Park, Del City, Midwest City, and Tinker air force base firemen held the blaze to the frame sections, about 100 feet distant from the main school building......Shop teachers got even less than Ernest's four hours; sleep. "They had worked so hard to set things up just right, and all their efforts were taken away in one swipe." he commented. Buddy Corbett, vocational auto mechanics instructor, and eoodwork techer Emil Delsigne were holding classes as usual, except that the day's assignment was salvage and clean-up work........Meanwhile, other students were offering to help in any way the could. "You always hear wbout kids being happy when the school burns down. it wasn't true - they are all taking it pretty seriously," the principal said.