False fire alarms sound twice in one week

Jonah Constans, Arts & Entertainment Editor

On Monday, January 8, there was a fire alarm during 1st period caused by dust in the smoke detectors in the construction area. Usually if something that resembles smoke gets into a smoke detector, the detector will go off, and this is exactly what happened.

All students in the building had to evacuate; none were allowed to go to their lockers to get their coats due to safety issues. It was about 30 degrees outside and kids were freezing, but it wasn’t that devastating because nobody was outside for very long. After the false alarm, Mr. Mckeag stated on the loudspeaker that there was nothing to worry about, so everyone went on with the regular day, assuming it wouldn’t happen again.

On Friday, January 12, it happened again. The fire alarm went off this time because of a broken sprinkler in the pool area. Mr. McKeag says there was probably a door that was left open and some cold air disrupted the sprinkler, which caused the sprinkler to malfunction. Everybody was startled that a fire alarm had gone off two times in one week.

Everybody evacuated the building again, but this time is was -10 degrees outside. People would get frostbite if they were outside for too long, so students and staff were moved back inside the building in about ten minutes, once the cause was determined.

Once students got back inside, nobody was allowed to go back to the classrooms right away; students and staff instead went to the library for about half an hour. While in the library, everyone regrouped with their classes and sat there until all this could be checked out by the fire department. Soon they gave the “all clear,” and students and staff continued the school day.