A fire broke out Wednesday morning at a barn in Carrboro where a preschool facility has been operating this year.
Carrboro spokesperson Rachel Heggen sent an email confirming after questions from WCHL that a preschool facility was operating in the barn. “From what I understand we are just now finding out today that a daycare was being run inside this building,” Heggen wrote.
In a follow-up email, Heggen said that the barn is located in the town’s extraterritorial jurisdiction and that the investigation into the cause of the fire was now being jointly conducted by Carrboro and Orange County officials.
Carrboro officials issued a statement shortly before 5 p.m. Wednesday saying that preschool officials had filed a request earlier this year for a permit to operate a preschool on Damascus Church Road.
“The Wildflower Learning Community Preschool and Kindergarten attended a joint review meeting in February, requesting a concept review to locate a preschool at 3100 Damascus Church Road. A Conditional Use Permit application was subsequently submitted and is currently under review. The property at 211 Old Fayetteville Road is located in the Town’s extraterritorial jurisdiction and is a bona fide farm, meaning that Orange County handles code enforcement. The Town of Carrboro is working closely with Orange County in an investigation of the fire.”
Online listings show that Wildflower Learning Community listed 211 Old Fayetteville Road as its address for the 2017/2018 school year.
No injuries were reported in the fire but officials said two small animals were found deceased. The investigation into the cause of the fire is ongoing.
Founder of the preschool Shelly Welch issued a statement to WCHL confirming the school was operating in the facility.
“We are processing the extraordinary loss of our school building and all of the children’s work, and our beloved goats, King Arthur and Toast,” Welch wrote. “Our hearts are broken.”
Welch added that the school is scheduled to close on a “new 16-acre Chapel Hill property in May.”
She said that officials are now working to find a temporary location until the end of the school year.
“I and my staff, along with the school’s families, have a collective resolute spirit and this is just a rock in the stream around which, as a community, we will flow.”
The property is owned by Marilyn Kille. A statement was issued on her behalf around 6:15 p.m. Wednesday:
“Shortly after 5:00 AM this morning, my neighbors spotted a fire at the barn on my property in Orange County and banged on my house door to wake me. The neighbors had already called first responders, and fire fighters arrived but were unable to save the barn from destruction. The loss of the Peppermint Spring Farm’s barn and the animals deeply saddens me. The barn was a special place dedicated to the memory of my late husband and has served our family and community well for more than 20 years.
I am grateful for the efforts of the fire fighters and state and local law enforcement officials to establish the cause of the fire. I look forward to cooperating fully with Orange County and state authorities as they investigate the fire and am confident that they will quickly determine its cause and, if appropriate, the identities of those responsible.”
This story will be updated with additional information as it is made available.
Photo via Town of Carrboro
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As a dedicated family of this preschool, I’m disappointed with your statement that Carrboro officials were unaware of the preschool operating at 211 Old Fayetteville, as if its existence was a surprise. We’ve had the full support and approval of the town, everything was carefully inspected and recently received excellent reports from the department of health. As a parent in this day and age of all the terrible things happening at schools, I’m more than happy that the presence of the school was not advertised with a big sign on the road… so the average person driving by probably had no idea that there was a school there. Wildflower has been the most wonderful school for our child, we love the teachers and the caring, fun environment. All the families and children are devastated by this event and we are rallying together to see what we can do to move on. Personally, I’d like to see you investigate this further and correct your headline.
Actually, according to the state’s website, this daycare did not exist. There is a Wildflower Cottage in Durham but the state does not have a license issued to a Wildflower Learning Center. You can search here https://ncchildcaresearch.dhhs.state.nc.us/search.asp
They aren’t required to have a license as a part time school operating 4 hours or less per day.
Kamryn, Please review NCGS § 110-86, which provides information about which schools need to be licensed. There are numerous schools (we are not a daycare) which operate 4 hours or less because they do NOT want the restrictions licensing places on teachers and students. We are educated teachers and can make intelligent decisions about what type of learning environment we feel is best for our students. Unfortunately, it appears that you made a cursory reading of DHHS website and drew an incorrect conclusion.
Well my family lives on Old Fayetteville Rd. and did not know the barn was being used as a daycare! There were no signs up that let us know. So I can see why they said they had no clue it was a daycare! I mean you pass by it everyday a never knew it was a daycare! None of the neighbors seem to no either. So it seem it was a well kept secret to us!
It is NOT a daycare.
I’m a parent of a child who attends this school and authorities were very aware please research before posting fabricated news stories. This was an extremely special place one of a kind and I know that everyone who was involved with wildflower is absolutely devastated. The children created this school with the help of there teachers it was a sanctuary for my child who loved those animals more then anything. I’m not sure how to tell her that she won’t be able to return. There is evil in this world and wildflower was a safe natural space for our children to escape and grow and exlplore. Our community is already coming together to find a solution to this devistation, more then the parents I know the incredible town of carrboro will come together to help our children. I do think if you research you will find out just how aware authorities were of this school and hopefully not spread fabricated stories just to get some views. This has been very hard for me to read and I’m very disappointed in this reporting. I want to know I can at least trust my local news.
The biggest issue that the media has completely missed or down played on purpose is the fact that because of general states in North Carolina if the building is identified as a Farm Building it is essentially exempted from the North Carolina Building Code. Basically meaning that the building is exempt from the building permitting process, which prevents building officials from determining if the building is even structurally sound much less determining if there are clear and adequate exits or other emergency systems required for a particular occupancy to reside in the building. North Carolina is promoting Agribusiness as a way of offering farmers other methods to provide income. That is understandable if it is an existing farm building and the event occurs on a limited basis, where a code official could temporarily mitigate or provide additional protections to assure the event occurs safely. Unfortunately what is has become is a free for all with people constructing wedding and event centers calling them agribusinesses and exempting themselves from the construction permitting process. This issue has nothing to do with the Day Care Licensing process it has everything to do with the safety of the visitors to the building, whether new or existing, especially children spending 4 hours per day there everyday.
This barn was built in 1998 and was, in fact, inspected by building inspectors.
This barn & landowner have a long, long history.
https://www.indyweek.com/news/archives/2009/03/05/marilyn-kille-versus-carrboro-the-rematch
https://www.wildflowerlearningcommunity.org/fire-old-fayetteville