Lincoln Police Officer Kevin Murphy and Detective Dana Packer stand in the wreckage of a side entrance to Lincoln High School, where the male driver was killed after a fiery crash Friday afternoon.  Times photo/Ernest A. Brown

By JON BAKER

LINCOLN — A teacher’s aide, apparently upset after losing his job early Friday afternoon, was killed in a fiery wreck after his car sped through the Lincoln High School parking lot and crashed through the doors of a secondary entrance.

No other injuries were reported. Police and school officials would not identify the victim, citing their ongoing investigation.
The crash occurred almost an hour after 1:50 p.m. dismissal. According to Schools Superintendent Georgia Fortunato, the building was nearly vacant at the time.
Every high school athletic event and assembly scheduled for this weekend has been postponed, Fortunato said.
Witnesses said the driver’s body was burned beyond recognition. Sources indicated that he was in his early 30s. His car appeared to be a Ford Escort.
School secretary Carmel Mendoza told reporters that she and another employee tried to pull the man from the burning car after it crashed. She retreated after spotting a pool of gasoline.
Mendoza said the driver was a special education teacher’s aide who looked distraught when she saw him leaving the building minutes before.
The Providence Journal reported on its Web site Friday that the car was registered to Jay Paul and that he had been a listed in 2006 as a substitute teacher at the school.
When reached by phone by The Associated Press, a man who confirmed he was Jay Paul’s father passed the phone to another man, who said politely, “We don’t know the details” and declined to comment further.
It was not immediately clear what caused the crash, which startled bystanders and staff still inside the building.
“I smelled gasoline,” Alexandra Caluori, a teenage witness, told WJAR-TV. “I looked and I saw a car in front of the school — it crashed in front — in flames.”
Counselors have been called in to assist any of the 1,100 students at the high school who may need help, Fortunato said.
Lime Rock Fire District’s Engine 31, driven by Deputy Chief Stephen Tucker, was the first fire apparatus on scene. According to Tucker, crews knocked the fire down quickly.
The deputy chief described the wreckage: “What happened when he drove in was that the car struck the office wall to the right, and broke all the glass. The vehicle actually went in up to the engine compartment.
“All the fire doors inside closed when the fire started, as they are expected to do. I found more smoke damage than fire damage,” Tucker said. “By the breakage of the glass to that office, fire did affect it inside. The lobby was not engulfed in flames.”
Dozens of students, teachers, parents and others stood in small groups on school grounds as first responders tended to business. Some seemed shocked, while others cried on the shoulders of loved ones.
An autopsy will be conducted Saturday, when police are expected to confirm the man’s identity.
With Associated Press reports.