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Menlo Park Academy building catches fire again, to be demolished

Posted at 5:18 PM, Jul 18, 2018
and last updated 2018-07-18 17:18:33-04

One of two buildings on the Menlo Park Academy site caught fire Wednesday morning. Officials said the building was vacant and no one was injured.

Menlo Park Academy is a tuition-free K-8 school that serves gifted learners. It finished its first full school year after an investment of over $17 million to renovate the historic Joseph & Feiss warehouse building, according to a news release from school representatives. The 100-year-old building had previously sat abandoned for nearly 20 years.

The larger of the two structures on site had been renovated is operating as a school, the release states. The second building remained empty, and while Menlo officials had hoped to preserve the building for future use, “senseless vandalism has now made that impossible,” officials said.

Wednesday morning’s fire follows several other fires this year which resulted in the condemnation of the building by the city, officials explained. School administrators are now moving to finalize the demolition of the building.