Faulty Fire Alarm Empties High School

Confused students, teachers and staff exited the high school yesterday after the alarm went off

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Mae Nagusky

Students gather on the sidewalk next to firetrucks and fire department vans.

Students filed out of the high school at 3:00 p.m. yesterday after hearing the fire alarm.

“At first, I thought someone had just pulled it, then as I was walking out of the school, I saw the fire trucks coming in,” sophomore Bronwyn Warnock said. “I was like, ‘I think this is serious, I don’t think someone just pulled that.’”

What caused the alarm to go off was a smoke detector that malfunctioned in a maintenance office in the basement, according to Ramsey Inman, assistant principal. “When the fire department showed up, they were able to work with our head of maintenance and locate which smoke detector was triggered,” he said.

When there is a planned fire drill, the fire department sends a fire official to the school to monitor evacuation. Yesterday two fire trucks and two fire department vans parked on the oval.

“They do regular tests of all the smoke detectors and things like that, but things like this do happen sometimes — sometimes things are faulty,” said Inman.

This story was updated Aug. 26 to correct the location of the faulty fire alarm.

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