CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A Charlotte private school said it plans to be back in time for the new school year, despite roughly $2.5 million in damages from a 3-alarm fire.

The fire tore through a portion of Charlotte Preparatory School Monday night, leaving the kindergarten through third grade building destroyed.

What You Need To Know

  •  Charlotte Preparatory School enrolled 400 students last school year

  •  The fire caused $2.5 million in damages, according to Charlotte Fire Department

  •  There were no injuries from the fire, as school nor camps were in session 

The school, which had enrolled 400 students last school year, is a private kindergarten - 8th grade campus in Charlotte. Because of the fire, this week's summer camps are canceled. Meanwhile, no students were on site as the campus was not in session, and the fire happened late Monday night, according to school officials. 

In an email Tuesday, the school said it was already beginning the clean-up process and was working with its insurance provider to rebuild. In the meantime, the school said it planned to have temporary offices and classrooms in place by the time the new school year begins later this year.

Charlotte Fire Department said the fire took roughly 90 minutes to contain and cost millions in damages. The department, and its partners, were using drones and K9s to determine a cause, according to tweets from the fire department on Tuesday.

At the scene of the fire, current and former students and their families were surveying the damage in a state of shock.

“I didn’t know that it would be this bad, cause like I knew that it collapsed. But, for some reason, I didn’t expect it to be like this,” Carolina Maybry, a recent graduate, said. 

Maybry just finished 8th grade last month and is headed to high school. Her younger brother is still a student at Charlotte Preparatory. She said it was shocking to see the school in such awful shape on Tuesday.

“Where I spent half of my childhood just burned down. So like, I’ve still not really accepted it yet. But, seeing it is like really scary and weird,” Maybry added.

Another graduate, Blaire Cunnane, said all her siblings and several cousins attended the school and graduated dating back years. 

“It’s just devastating. My cousin actually texted me this morning and said she was in tears about it,” Cunnane said outside the gates.

She said she was not usually in this part of town, but had to stop by and see what happened while driving in the area with her children.

“I think the last time I was here was like five years ago at my sister’s last soccer game here, and it’s just kind of surreal seeing it now. That was my kindergarten classroom,” Cunnane said, while inspecting the damage.

Both Cunnane and Maybry said they hope the school comes back and rebuilds quickly, so more memories can be made here.

“Be brave about it. Cause, like, even though that just happened, there’s always good stuff that’s going to happen after that,” Maybry added.