A one-story building on the property of the former Elan School was completely destroyed in a Sunday fire, according to a report from WMTW.
The fire broke out around 5 a.m., and the Poland Fire Department was on scene by 6:30 a.m., according to officials. The single building that caught on fire was completely destroyed, and the fire initially spread to nearby trees and the siding of another nearby building before crews were able to contain the fire.
Officials’ main concerns were to ensure that embers would not continue to smolder, as fires can spread extremely quickly in Maine’s current dry conditions.
The Elan School in Poland closed in April 2011. It was a private, for-profit boarding school that was opened in 1970 by a psychiatrist, Dr. Gerald Davidson, and businessman Joseph Ricci.
Elan School aimed to treat troubled youths who had behavioral problems, such as difficulty with authority figures and temperament issues, according to the school’s now-defunct website.
The school was the subject of a number of inquiries into its treatment of students, with numerous former students taking to online communities to share their negative experiences including accounts of physical and emotional abuse they allegedly received while attending Elan.
The school reportedly was investigated by the Maine Department of Education, but no abusive tactics were disclosed at the time. The school’s closure in 2011 was driven by a lack of enrollment, according to an article published at the time in the Bangor Daily News.
The Maine fire marshal’s office will investigate the cause of the fire.
