WICHITA, Kan. (KAKE) -  A fire at a school building in east Wichita leads to heavy damage and its roof collapsing.

The head of school at The Independent School says, the fire started in the pool house, a building that's nearly 80 years old where the old YMCA pool used to be.

“We got a call that it was on fire. We got here as quick as we could,” said Terrell Davis, Head of School at The Independent School.

Davis is walking us through the moment he found out a building they use at the Independent School was on fire. He says it's a historical sentiment for the community.

“This was an indoor pool that dates years and years back. We currently use it as an indoor facility for athletic sports. And so batting cages, wrestling, things like that,” said Davis.

It happened just after noon on Christmas Day near east Douglas and Rock Road. Fire investigators say the fire spread so much that the roof of the two-story building collapsed.

“On arrival, that roof collapsed and we went into a defensive operation from that standpoint, we set up a defensive operation and used our aerial operations to be able to get control of the fire,” said Jose Ocadiz, Wichita Fire Battalion Chief.

Davis says the building was built in the 40s. He then described to us what he saw when he walked up.

“From the pictures I got, the ceiling was totally engulfed in flames. And it looks like from walking up that the ceiling is totally gone,” said Davis.

And people have a lot of memories in this building.

“A lot of people learn how to swim in that swimming pool. It's been a great theme from the Garvey family. And we're just sad to see it burned down like this,” said Davis.

Davis said to him, it looks like the building is a total loss. Fire investigators are still trying to figure out the cause of the fire.