LIVE OAK, Fla. — An early-morning fire Friday claimed a portable building at the Suwannee Primary School.

When crews from the Live Oak Fire Department arrived after being dispatched at 5:12 a.m. Friday, the building was fully involved with the roof and walls already collapsed.

“It had been free burning in there for awhile,” LOFD Chief Chad Croft said. “We could see the glow.

“It pretty much burned up completely before we got there just because of where it was located and not a lot of, at that time of morning, people out riding around.”

Croft said the cause of the fire has not yet been determined. The fire is still under investigation and Croft said the state’s fire marshal has been contacted, as is LOFD’s procedure when a commercial structure is involved.

While the portable, which was used for music classes as well as physical education, was a complete loss, Croft said the rest of the school building was not affected by the flames.

After arriving, LOFD crews pulled metal off the fire to help extinguish the flames and to prevent it from spreading to the school building.

“It was totally self contained,” Croft added. “The school can still function 100 percent.”

Which was the blessing in the unfortunate situation, as far as Superintendent of Schools Ted Roush is concerned.

“That was one of the more remarkable things I noticed, how close that portable building was to the actual permanent site and for there not to be any damage to speak of, we were very fortunate that we did not have any other structures that had any type of damage,” he said. “It is unfortunate, but we consider ourselves to be very blessed that it wasn’t worse than it was.”

Roush said district administration as well as SPS would begin assessing the space available at the school currently in terms of trying to find a new home for music and PE. Roush added that SPS Principal Marsha Tedder was already working late Friday morning to come up with an inventory list for what was all lost in the fire.

“All those things will be looked at to see what we need to do to address the facility piece,” Roush said.