A two-alarm fire was reported in the P building of RCHS at 6:42 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 6, and there were no injuries. Rancho Fire Department Battalion Chief Eric Wells described what happened that evening. He said they called for a second alarm and had the fire in control within about 60 minutes. 

Regarding the cause of the fire, Wells said, “School was out of session and no one was in the building, we did have a fire alarm go off and units responded.” 

Superintendent Dr. Mat Holton later tweeted on the official CJUHSD Twitter account that the cause of the massive fire was the “overload of electrical wiring in a P Building classroom.”

While no one was injured, the fire destroyed the interior of three P building classrooms. Wells said, “Three were fully involved with some damage to the third one, but all fire has been held to building P. The interior will need to be rebuilt, but the structure is still sound.” 

Classes resumed normally the following day with the P buildings enclosed and isolated from students.