By Staff Writers Selina Kao & Priyanka Shah
On Tuesday, October 5, staff and administrators responded to a fire in the B-wing which resulted in alarms and class evacuations.
The fire — which began in a trash can in the B-Wing boy’s bathroom — broke out around 10:10 a.m. Alarms sounded throughout campus as faculty who were nearby quickly put out the fire.
“A student told a teacher, [and] the teacher immediately got someone down there,” Principal Jeff Evans said. “We got a fire extinguisher and put it [the fire] out. It was from smoke to out within a minute.”
Although the cause of the fire is unknown, the Fremont Fire Department believes that the fire originated from a piece of paper someone lit and threw in the garbage.
Because of the recent vandalism and fake fire alarms, students and staff on campus who were unaware that the evacuation was due to an actual fire felt confusion on Tuesday.
“When the fire alarm first went off, I thought this was just another prank,” Junior Anjora Dubey said. “These pranks definitely did lower our precautions for fires.”
Moving forward, teachers have been instructed to keep record of those leaving classrooms.
“We are having staff do bathroom passes and sign-in and sign-out logs,” Evans said. “We are also monitoring the bathrooms to make sure everything is safe.”
In the future, administration hopes to increase security on campus by advocating for cameras and staff bathroom checks in the interim.
Administration stresses the importance of taking fire alarms seriously, especially in light of recent infractions. “It seemed as though there was a lot of walking around and not knowing what to do among the teachers. This could have been because of all the fake fire alarms,” Evans said. “But this was real. It is always important that we take every drill seriously and go down to the field.”
“If you see something, say something,” Assistant Vice Principal Jeana Nightingale said. “At the end of the day, we just want everybody to feel safe and have a safe environment.”
