Firefighters battle fire at former Ladd Elementary School on Kansas City’s East side
An overnight two-alarm fire swept through parts of the former Ladd Elementary on Kansas City’s East side, damaging the school building that was scheduled to begin renovations this year.
The fire was reported shortly before 3 a.m. Friday at the former school at 3640 Benton Blvd., which is near 37th Street and Bellefontaine Avenue.
The first firefighters on the scene reported flames coming out of three sides of the three-story, brick school building, according audio of radio traffic captured by Broadcastify.com.
Shortly after arriving, firefighters requested that a second-alarm be sounded to bring extra fire trucks and firefighters to the school to battle the blaze.
Several firefighters were treated for minor injuries, which included steam burns, but no one was taken to a hospital, said Jason Spreitzer, a spokesman for the Kansas City Fire Department. The incident remains under investigation for the cause and origin of the fire.
The former school was built in 1912 and was closed in 2010. Over the years, a handful of proposals to rehabilitate the property either failed or were rejected, mainly due to inadequate financing, The Star previously reported.
In March 2022, the Kansas City Public School District sold the school property to Local Code Kansas City, which planned to renovate the building into a mixed-use development with commercial space for Black-owned businesses and an event space on the first floor and apartments planned for the top two floors.
The project is in its pre-construction phase with its renovation and construction phase scheduled to being later this year, according to the project’s website.
This story was originally published June 30, 2023 at 2:15 PM.
