Blanchard students remember 10th anniversary of school fire

Ten years ago, a fire caused extensive damaged to Blanchard Elementary School in Cape Girardeau, leading to $500,000 in damages and displacing students from their school. Last week, students and staff at the school remembered the disaster by thanking Cape Girardeau firefighters with gifts of food.

The fire was certainly a challenging situation for the students and staff at the time, but one that could have been much worse. It started when an overheated copier ignited in a teachers' workroom. The workroom and everything in it was destroyed. And smoke damaged two rooms that were used to help disabled students. Thankfully, and most importantly, no one was injured.

Along with the great work by our local firefighters, a local church stepped up to keep classes on schedule. Lynwood Baptist Church generously offered their campus so the school district could continue classes. With Lynwood's spacious campus and health department-approved kitchen, it was a perfect match for the school's 350 students and 40 teachers. To top it off, Lynwood offered their church to the district free of charge.

Isaiah 61:3 talks about receiving a crown of beauty instead of ashes. That was very much the case with this story, as quite literally ashes from a fire gave way to heroic first responders and a generous community who rallied around a school and its students. We're glad the students and staff at Blanchard took time recently to remember what happened 10 years ago at their school.