Who burned down the high school

Fact, Fantasy & Fiction

Max Clampitt

Printed with permission of Max Clampitt published 15 Aug 2010, Hobbs News Sun

The streets were almost deserted at 1:00 a.m., April 6, 1942. Tommy Lou Williams and Mable Kretzinger were driving down the 30 Block of North Houston Street when they noticed flames in the north end of the Hobbs High School building. They drove immediately four blocks west to the City Hall and into the fire station driveway, holding down their horn button all the way.

Fire Chief Floyd Wynn, J.D. Boren, Clint Saylor, and S.S. Blakeley were sleeping in the second story volunteer's dormitory. Blakeley said he had heard the horn and thought it was down the street. It aroused night watchmen Jimmy Clemens in the police office on the other side of the City Hall. In a few seconds the fire siren was whining out the alarm, calling the rest of the home-bound volunteer firemen. Within the next five minutes, both of the city fire trucks were at the blaze and three lines of hose were hooked up. Several people living in the neighborhood were pitching in with their help.

It appeared that the worst part of the flames were coming from the north end of the halway, near the boy's rest room. Fire Chief Wynn discovered that the rear door had been forced and the firemen said the smelled odors of kerosene.One of the fireman said later that they had three streams of water, under pressure pouring into the area and they could see that they were losing ground and that the fire had plenty of headway. They discovered that the windows on the south end of the building had been opened. Chief Wynn said that the wind was blowing from the north and just blew the fire down the entire length of the building. In a few minutes, the whole place was a mass of flames.

The next day, four of the firemen were very thankful that they had escaped alive. They had carried a hose to the roof in the center of the building. Battalion Chief Dan Lake was just about to open the nozzle of the line when an explosion blew out the whole front wall, which left the section of roof on which they were standing without support and it was beginning to crumble. Lake was on the roof with W.S. Carpenter, Happy Henderson and S.S. Blakeley. When the roof began to fall. Lake shouted to the men to either jump orget down the ladder: They scrambled down the ladderjust as the roof fell into the inferno.

Two other volunteer firemen nearly had thier names on a casualty list. J. D. Heath, a City Councilman and an ardent supporter of the Fire Department, and J.D. Boren. These two men were battling the fire on the east side of the building near the gymnasium, where the east side wall toppled over. Both men made a dash for safety, escaping with only a few bruises where they were hit by falling bricks.

The flames swept through the attic, which extended tthe full length of the building. It was only a few minutes before the entire roof caved in. The gymnasium was a seperate buildin about 20 feet east of the high school and was untouched. That building is still in use today as the basketball court for Houston Junior High. The high school building had been built in 1935 at a cost of $80,000.00.

One of the most mournful figures going through the ruins that afternoon was veteran coach Herb West. He was holding a piece of blackened metal. He said that it was all that was left of the largest trophy collection in the state of New Mexico.The only thing that was known to be saved from the destruction was a set of Law Books owned by Howard Harpham, a teacher who taught history and civics. He had previously been a practicing lawyer in another state. He managed to get there early enough to break out the windows of his classroom, climb inside and throw his boooks outside, this at great danger to himself. I have been told that Harpham served in the Jal school system in later years.

The cause of the fire was never learned, but it hapened five months after the United States entered World War II and many citizens started howling about "sabatoge." I doubt this was probable. How could an act like burning a school building in New Mexico enhance the war efforts of Germany or Japan?

What was strange to me is the fact that two years earier; also on April 6, a fire swept through the Junior High School in Clovis, leaving the $50,000.00 building in ruins. Then exactly one year before the Hobbs fire, a fire left the Jal High School gymnasium a mass of cgarred wreckage.

It is also strange that April 6, 1917, 25 years ago, made an aniversary of the United States going into the First World War - a date with a special significance for someone, or only a sad coincidence?

Max Clampitt, former Hobbs Mayor and City Commissioner, is a local freelance writer.