The gymnasium building at a private school in York County was destroyed by fire early Wednesday morning.
Sanford Regional Communications Center received a fire alarm from Seacoast Christian School in South Berwick just before 2 a.m. Firefighters arrived minutes later to see smoke and flames coming from the building, according to South Berwick fire officials.
Crews from Maine and New Hampshire were able to contain the fire and prevent it from spreading to other buildings and a nearby playground.
Despite the firefighters’ “outstanding work and effort,” the gym was a total loss, Principal Amberle Bennett and Head of School Tim Monahan said in a Facebook post.
“We could go through the list of blessings that we are grateful for in this moment – that this occurred after hours, preventing any injury, that the fire didn’t spread beyond the gym to other buildings or even the playground directly next to it, that the wind of the last three days stopped last night; the list goes on,” they wrote.
Fire officials say the cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Fire departments from Berwick, Somersworth, Rollinsford and Dover assisted South Berwick at the scene.
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