Tulsa Public Schools offers up empty building for Tulsa School of Arts and Sciences after fire

TULSA - There's a flurry of activity Wednesday at the former Sequoyah Elementary School building as workers are cleaning and preparing for new students.

On Wednesday, a local charter school was destroyed when flames shot through the building. 

View more pictures from the scene at http:// bit.ly/ ThWi2Q .

The Tulsa School of Arts and Sciences (TSAS) will now relocate to the empty TPS building at 3411 E. Archer St.

“TPS staff is working diligently to prepare the building for TSAS staff to welcome students back to school first thing in the morning,” said Keith Ballard, TPS superintendent. “We are doing everything in our power to ensure that TSAS students have a comfortable home at the former Sequoyah building.”

TSAS had leased TPS's Barnard Elementary building, which was closed in May 2011 under Project Schoolhouse.

Around 5 a.m. Wednesday, neighbors reported seeing flames shooting into the air. After more than five hours, firefighters had finally contained the blaze.

Eight firefighters were hospitalized after suffering burns to their faces and hands.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

Eric Doss, TSAS director, released a statement Wednesday afternoon about the destruction of the TSAS building and the help the school is receiving from TPS.

This is a sad day for the Tulsa School of Arts and Sciences community; the fire at 2324 E 17th Street has been devastating. Our community is very strong and we will recover and rebuild together. Our number one goal is to get students back into classrooms and begin to get back to a sense of normalcy. 

Our partners at Tulsa Public Schools have graciously opened the doors to Sequoyah elementary at 3441 E.  Archer St. and already begun an amazing transformation, cleaning and moving equipment for our use. Our staff will meet at the school this afternoon to make strategic decisions for our new location. Tomorrow we are going to have school at Sequoyah starting at 9:00 am.  

There are a lot of questions and an overwhelming outpouring of support from the Tulsa Community. We'll have more information about how people can help as soon as possible on our website at tsas.org

The school thanks Tulsa Public Schools for their support and the Tulsa Fire Department for their fearless job putting out the fire.