Sudbury nursery school working to find new home after fire

Time is ticking for a Sudbury nursery school to find a new home after a fire destroyed the church they've operated out of for the last four years.

The Minnow Lake/New Sudbury Cooperative Nursery School was located in the Grace United Church. On Wednesday night, the building burned down.

"Right now, things are really, really up in the air," Melissa Gladu, president of the board of directors with the nursery school said. "There's a lot of questions but not a lot of answers."

Gladu says she first learned about the fire on social media when she woke up Thursday morning.

"We were all in a state of shock," she said. "We were kind of thinking maybe it didn't affect the back of the church where our stuff is. But when I went there, it was mainly the area that we use that was most devastated by the fire."

The nursery school used to operate out of a school in New Sudbury until it closed. Gladu says the school is licensed under the Ministry of Education, and has rules similar to daycares. She says it was challenging to find the space at Grace United Church.

Gladu says the capacity for the school is 40 children and there's already a wait list for the fall. She says she's not sure what will happen if another space isn't found.

"As of right now, we're kind of at a standstill as to what's going to happen to the program come September," she said.

"I mean I'm hopeful, I have a lot of faith, but at this point I don't know if they'd stick around while we sort things out."

She adds she has contacted the Ministry of Education to ask for help in this process.

Investigators are still trying to determine the cause of the fire, but the city fire department believes the church was hit by lightning.

Acting Deputy Fire Chief Jesse Oshell says firefighters responded to a report of a lightning strike early Wednesday evening. He says they saw no smoke or flames and left.

Oshell says there were called backa few hours later when the church caught fire.

"Lightning strikes can be quite mysterious on their own and the damage they can do," he said.

"Those effects might not show up for hours later, as they did in this situation."

Oshell says there was also a house in the south end of Sudbury that caught on fire Wednesday after being hit by lightning. He says those flames were extinguished quickly and there was only minor damage.