The Lower Yukon community of Kotlik all pitched in, and the Kotlik School was able to open its doors only a few days behind schedule after a fire destroyed the old school and three other buildings.
On August 18th, Kotlik residents awoke just after midnight to find the old school building on fire. Pauline Okitkun is the Kotlik Tribal Administrator.
“I know there is at least four school district buildings that got destroyed totally. Three of their buildings got damaged, and two of the buildings that got destroyed are the old school and the Hamilton tribal office," said Okitkun.
Okitkun says the village fought the fire, but the out of control blaze continued to burn and destroyed the old school, the Hamilton Tribal Building, a duplex used by two teachers and their families, and the backup generator for the school.
The Kotlik School opened its doors for the new school year on Monday this week after only a four day delay, Kotlik School Principal Cory Weiss says that they had to wait for the generator to be repaired.
“It was the backup generator to the school, but there were some connections from that building to other buildings which had to be repaired. That’s why the school was without services for several days," said Weiss.
Weiss says people from Alaska Electrical Services came and got the primary generator running before an electrician repaired the damaged connections.
Two teachers, fourth grade teacher Samantha Thvedt and sixth grade teacher Jessica Molyneaux, and their families lost all their belongings in the fire not long after settling down for the new year.
Though the teachers couldn’t be reached for comment in time for this story, Okitkun says there has been no shortage of support from the community.
“We put containers in the stores locally asking for cash donations, I know I was talking with Red Cross the day of the fires, so Red Cross was able to assist the two families," said Okitkun.
There was also a GoFundMe page set up not long after the fire; by Wednesday afternoon just over five hundred dollars had been pledged for the families. Weiss says that even though the fire has been a tragedy for the community, he is encouraged by the outpouring of support.
“It’s a testament to the goodness of people that… just the reaction that we’ve seen. We’ve been fortunate that no one was hurt, no one was even worse killed, we were fortunate that the winds were blowing in the direction they were. If they were blowing in the other direction, we would’ve lost a whole lot more," said Weiss.
Weiss says the teachers and their families initially stayed at the school after the fire, but were eventually able to move in with other faculty members.
The State Fire Marshal’s office is still investigating the fire and could not be reached for comment.