Fire ravages Rehoboth
Blaze consumes school storage building, equipment

Gallup firefighter James Gleason rakes smoldering hay from a fire that burned this morning at a bus garage at Rehoboth Christian Schools campus on Tuesday. [Photos by Brian Leddy/Independent]

By Leslie Wood
Staff writer

GALLUP — Firefighters were dispatched twice within 24 hours to extinguish a blaze at a Rehoboth Christian School barn located in “the heart of the campus.”

Emergency personnel were initially called to the location about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday in reference to the structure that was engulfed in flames, Ron Polinder, executive director of the school, said.

Firefighters responded to the scene for a second time following reports of hot spots at the barn at about 4 p.m.

Polinder said the barn houses school buses, but only one older bus was parked inside at the time of the fire. A “cherry picker” and several bales of hay were also destroyed.

“I think it’s fair to say, we don’t know how it started,” Polinder said of the blaze.

He said buildings in close proximity to the barn were not in danger during the fire.

Gallup Fire Chief Robert Soto said a theory is that the hay inside the barn caught fire; however, a final determination has not been released.

Fortunately, the school’s six to seven buses were parked at each drivers’ residence the night of the fire.

“We were just grateful it wasn’t worse,” Polinder said. “ ... We thank the Lord there was a limit to the damage.”

He also thanked firefighters for their prompt response.

We are very grateful to the fire folks who responded,” he said. “ ... It was very cold that night.”

The McKinley County Sheriff’s Department is also investigating the incident.