Firefighters survey the remains of the Khalsa School in East Vancouver on Thursday morning. (Submitted by Simon Yang)

A suspicious fire has destroyed the Khalsa School near the intersection of Fraser Street and 45th Avenue in East Vancouver, but the school's holy book has been miraculously recovered from the burnt remains of the buildings.

Local residents first spotted smoke Thursday at about 7:45 a.m. PT coming from the Sikh school at 5987 Prince Albert St., across from Memorial Park South.

By the time firefighters arrived minutes later, the fire was already raging out of control through the main building and several portable classrooms, sending a massive plume of smoke up over East Vancouver.

The fire was largely under control by 9 a.m., but only one of about half a dozen portables survived the blaze. Fortunately there were no reported injuries from the fire.

Suspicious start

Deputy fire chief Tim Armstrong said the cause of the fire is not yet known, but it appeared suspicious because it rapidly engulfed one building and two portable classrooms at virtually the same time.

The Khalsa School in East Vancouver erupted in flames on Thursday morning. (CBC)

"That's suspicious to us, but again, I don't want to comment more than that until our fire investigator goes in and surveys the situation," said Armstrong.

As teachers, students, parents and neighbours watched the buildings burn to the ground from the park across the street, principal Jasbir Singh Bhatia said the community was devastated.

Along with the classrooms, a school temple was also destroyed, and many feared the school's holy book, the Guru Granth Sahib, had been burned up in the blaze.

"Oh, it's devastating," said Bhatia as he watched the fire burn. "I was so upset. I have no words to talk about my grief."

Holy scripture recovered

But after the flames were finally extinguished, firefighters entered the charred buildings and recovered the school's holy scripture and turned it over to the school.

Firefighters who entered the building found the schools holy book after putting out the blaze. (CBC)

It is was not known what condition the book was in as firefighters brought it out covered in a white cloth, but members of the temple attributed its preservation to the will of God.

Five years ago, several portables at the school were also damaged by fire, but if the school was the target of an arsonist this time, Bhatia said he had no idea why.

The community group that runs the Sikh school was renting the site from the Vancouver School Board, but there were no summer classes in session, according to school board officials.

An older school on the site was not touched by the fire.