Firefighters were on scene for about three hours working to extinguish the flames. No one was injured.

Fire Chief Steve Hergenreter said “human action” caused the fire.

The fire in the old school at 416 S. 10th St. was reported at 11:39 a.m. Hergenreter said it was reported by people near UnityPoint Health — Trinity Regional Medical Center, which is across the Des Moines River from the school, who saw flames shooting out of the roof on the building’s west side.

Upon arriving, firefighters found lots of smoke in the school’s auditorium. The source of the smoke was a room on the third floor that was engulfed in flames. Getting at the fire proved to be a challenge.

-Submitted photo
Fort Dodge firefighters work to put out a fire that sent flames through the roof of the former Fair Oaks Middle School at 416 S. 10th St. Monday morning.

On its east side, the school is a two-story building. But on the west side, where the fire was, it is a three-story building. It was impossible to get the Fire Department’s ladder truck close to the building on the west side. Therefore, firefighters pulled 500 feet of hose through the entrance on the northeast side of the building. To get at the fire on the roof, they went through a window onto a second-floor roof, then used an extension ladder to reach the third-floor roof.

Large diameter hose was stretched down South 10th Street to connect to a hydrant at Third Avenue South and 10th Street.

“It’s quite an operation,” Hergenreter said.

The fire that burned through the roof spread about 30 feet in every direction.

“They’re having to tear the roof up to get at the fire,” Hergenreter said.

He said the roof was a very dangerous place to work because there are large holes in it where air handling equipment had been removed, perhaps by thieves looking for metal to sell.

Seven off-duty firefighters were called in to help. Firefighters were on the scene until 2:40 p.m.

The school has been vacant since 2018. There have been some smaller fires in the building since then.

“We’ve had numerous fires set by squatters,” Hergenreter said.

He said when police and firefighters arrived at the school Monday there were up to three people he described as “squatters” on the property.

Both the Fair Oaks and Phillips middle schools closed in 2013 when the new Fort Dodge Middle School opened at 800 N. 32nd St. The following year, the buildings were sold to Foutch Brothers LLC, of Kansas City, Missouri, which announced plans to turn the schools into apartment buildings.

In 2015, after severe structural problems forced the closure of the old Duncombe Elementary School building at Sixth Avenue North and 16th Street, Foutch Brothers allowed the Fort Dodge Community School District to move that school’s students and teachers into the Fair Oaks building. That arrangement ended with the opening of the new Duncombe Elementary School in 2018.

Foutch Brothers did renovate the former Phillips Middle School at 1019 Fourth Ave. N. into apartments, but so far no work has been done on the Fair Oaks building.

Online records of the Webster County Assessor’s Office list the building’s current owner as Fair Oaks Homes LLC, of Johnston. Those records show it was built in 1931.