The small school of St Aloysius in Redan has suffered a devastating blow even before the school year has begun with a fire that has destroyed up to a $250,000 worth of buildings and equipment. Much of the equipment lost was earmarked for upgrades with which the school had hoped to give a boost to the new school year.

The human cost is even greater. If the story of a graduate teacher  who has worked for six weeks to prepare a classroom, only to see her efforts go up in smoke, doesn’t touch you then spare a thought for the kids.  Many pupils will face the start of the year essentially without a place to call their classroom. The school will strive to make the library feel like home but it wont be the same. There were also threat of what the fire could have turned into.  The nearby historic church was  was at risk but an elderly priest sleeping nearby was also lucky the blaze didn’t grow..

Other schools have offered to help with furnishings and equipment but now it is the communities turn. The Courier has run many stories about arson in recent months but key to this is the recognition that this is not simply someone else’s problem. 

Arson incidents fall into several often overlapping categories; the malicious; where people deliberately light fires for some perverse and deplorable desire to create an effect or impact. The reckless where often stupid youths torch cars in the forest in the hope of destroying evidence.  Another category is the careless, which while less feared can be just as devastating whether it is inappropriate use of machinery , leaving a fire unattended  or simply the plain stupid act of throwing cigarettes from cars. While it is hoped a degree of education and conscientiousness might deter some there will always be reprobates. But all three of these causes do have one thing in common in the advent of  senseless waste; the community can help. The sooner these fires are spotted the sooner they can be put out and disaster averted. The sooner the community spots and reports any suspicious behavior  (and sometimes it is the smallest details that investigators can piece together) the sooner we will have these problems under control.

As for the young students of the unfortunate Redan School, let us hope that the spirit of their patron saint who was not cowed by adversity will embolden them.