At approximately 9 a.m. on Monday, Dec. 5, a smoke detector in the art wing of the school triggered the fire alarm that led to an evacuation for the students and staff to Monticello Trails Middle School. The evacuation, lasting approximately 17 minutes, was due to an art project in the Survey of Fine Crafts class that was left unattended in the hallway.
Sophomore Abby Sieperda, the student whose project accidentally triggered the alarm, said she and her partner left a waxing plate running and forgot to turn it off.
“You’re supposed to keep filling the station with water, but we forgot to, and the water evaporated,” Sieperda said. “So while we were in class doing our other project, we saw out the door there was smoke everywhere, and then the fire alarm went off.”
After the school was evacuated and the fire department arrived, the students and staff made their way to MTMS to wait in the gym instead of outside in the cold.
“Once everyone started running to the middle school, I was a little concerned,” Sieperda said. “Just to feel that it was our fault that the entire school had to run to the middle school gym was a lot to handle and think about, it was crazy.”
Associate principal Matt Fedde said the evacuation went smoothly.
“Our first priority was making sure we had everyone out safely, and that has to happen even before we know exactly what happened,” Fedde said. “It was priority number one.”
Though the situation was minor and ran smoothly, a list of future precautions will be made in order to quickly and more easily accommodate the school and fire department. Items on this list include making sure students and staff are further away from the building, unblocking doors to avoid fueling the fire and potential procedural changes to better account for students.
Art teacher Jodi Ellis, the teacher in whose class the incident occurred, said the evacuation taught the school an important lesson that common drills cannot.
“I was very glad it wasn’t something major,” Ellis said. “But, having that situation occur did allow us to see how we would actually evacuate in a real situation.”
