Century Old School House Destroyed By Fire

Chinese Camp, CA — The Chinese Camp single room school house that burned to the ground Wednesday afternoon was exactly 100 years old. The building was located just off Hwy 49/120 near Washington Street.

Constructed in 1906, the vacant structure, owned by the Helen Stewart Estate and Helen Carol Perry of Denair, California, caught fire shortly after 2PM.

Four CDF-Tuolumne County Fire District crews and two water tenders as well as an inmate engine company from the Sierra Conservation Center responded to the blaze at 2:20PM.

After an hour of pumping water, firefighters realized they could not save the structure so they allowed the building to burn to the ground.

There were no injuries. Cause of the blaze remains under investigation.

Written by Bill Johnson