SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - American International College president Hubert Benitez and Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno say the college will bounce back after the Courniotes Hall campus building experienced a large fire during a thunderstorm Thursday night.

"First of all, I want to say [thank you] to the first responders," Sarno said. "I was getting updates last night when this was occurring and the tremendous job they did in knocking down this fire, very very challenging weather situations. When these situations occur first thing when I'm getting my updates, god forbid 'How many hurt? How many killed?' Thank God nobody was hurt, nobody was killed on the fire side or on the AIC side."

The Springfield Fire Department said as of Friday morning, it is not confirmed whether the fire started due to a strike of lightning. The damage to the building is severe and it may need to be rebuilt.

"At this point, we don't know yet that assessment hasn't been done," Benitez said. "Apparently it appears that it will be a full loss. The fire department has shared with us that the second floor and above has been destroyed by fire. The first floor has been destroyed by water. So unfortunately, it maybe a complete loss."

Courniotes Hall is home to AIC's nursing program and provides classroom space for additional health and science courses as well.

Benitez said around 400 to 500 students are currently enrolled in the building's academic programs, but wants to assure students that they will have a place to attend classes this coming school year.

"We already received emails from students saying, 'Will I have classes?'" Benitez said. "We are assuring that every single student will have access to their classes, maybe not in this building because it's not workable right now, but we will have alternate spaces for them to pursue their courses. So it's the health sciences that have been primarily impacted."

Benitez said the fire also created a financial loss for the school due to all of the expensive equipment inside which was used for their science programs like the nursing simulation center. He said they are already getting state and local support and hope things can be replaced.

"We will preserve the history of Courniotes Hall and we will rebuild it," Benitez said. "It's gonna be a brand new, gorgeous health and science infrastructure for AIC."

Sarno said he and Benitez are currently working on getting several sites ready for students to use this coming school year, including the Homer Street Elementary School in Springfield.