FERRIDAY — Police tape crosses the entrances of the building, but from the outside it is difficult to tell a section of the Concordia Education Center was on fire during the dawn hours Friday.

By 2:30 Friday afternoon, workers already had begun cleanup of the building, which did not suffer any significant damage to classrooms.

Concordia Education Center Principal Lillian Franklin said she received a call at approximately 6 a.m. that the school was on fire.

“By the time I got here at 6:25 a.m., the school was engulfed by thick smoke, but the fire was under control,” she said.

The extent of the damage was contained to two rooms, Franklin said.

The rooms were a janitor’s workroom and the teachers’ lounge, she said.

“Other than those two rooms, the damage is limited to smoke damage,” she said. “The structure of the building is fine.”

Franklin said she did not know enough Friday to estimate how much the damage would cost to repair.

The Ferriday Fire Department and Concordia Fire District No. 2 responded to the incident.

The cause of the fire is yet to be determined, and figuring it out will likely take several days due to the load of cases the fire marshal has to carry, Concordia Fire District No. 2 Director Nolen Cothren said.

The fire is just a minor setback, and the school district hopes to have everything up and running by the beginning of school, Superintendent Kerry Laster said.

The Concordia Education Center is an alternative school, and is slated to have approximately 40 students enrolled at the beginning of the school year, Franklin said.