Wilkins STEAM Academy students will not return to building this week due to transformer fire

An electrical transformer caught fire outside Wilkins STEAM Academy around 11:30 p.m. on Feb. 15.

We first showed you video of the flames on Friday morning here on Channel 11 Morning News.

As a result of the fire, Wilkins Elementary students will not be reporting to the building at all this week. Class is canceled for Tuesday and students will learn remotely for the rest of the week. They can stop by to get their learning materials and anything they will need for their virtual classes.

“This is the second time this has happened in a short time,” said parent Michael Reed. “All the parents, I’m sure, were hoping we’d be back on Tuesday as normal, but the severity was evidently more than anyone hoped or thought.”

Reed was the first car in line to pick up materials for his son, Eliezer, a second grader at Wilkins. He’ll spend the next three days learning virtually.

“That’s the great thing about the day and age we live in now, is they can do school from home,” Reed said.

Firefighters told Channel 11 that smoke from the transformer made its way through conduit and piping and into the school. Contractors and restoration crews spent part of Tuesday morning continuing to fumigate parts of the building that still smelled like smoke.

All other schools in the Woodland Hills School District district are operating normally.

Wilkins parents and teachers are hoping students will be back in the classroom next Monday.

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