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Three old school buildings in Savoonga were destroyed by a fire on Thursday, Feb. 2. According to Savoonga Village Police Officer and Police Chief Michael Wongittillin, he received a call shortly after 4 p.m. with reports of a big black plume coming out of one of the buildings. The building was not actively used, but functioned as temporary quarantine housing for teachers returning to Savoonga. For the lack of a fire department, VPOs, the VPSO Nick Toolie, school maintenance workers and the whole community came together to respond to the fire. Wongittillin said they managed to run three lines of water hoses, connecting several 100-ft hoses from fire hydrants to douse the flames, but were not able to fight the fire from inside the buildings due to a lack of proper breathing apparatuses and turnout gear. The fire spread to the two adjacent older school buildings, also not in active use. “We heard that there was a teacher in one of the buildings and VPO Timothy Gologergen ran into the east structure to do a sweep,” Wongittillin said. Nobody was in the building and the person that they were looking for was accounted for.