Wrestling mats cause fire alarm incident

Fire truck pictured arrived during the 28th incident.

Hannna Alemu, Reporter

On Nov. 28, at about 3:20 p.m., fire trucks, police cars and emergency Suburbans arrived after fire alarms went off at school. With the large number of emergency vehicles, the sudden interruption of after school activities, and the mystery behind what had caused the incident, many students and staff wondered what caused the alarms to go off.

Clint Albers, principal, said that wrestling mats were the reason.

“There were mats being moved [by the wrestling team], and a detector got hit, and that was what set [the alarms] off, so there wasn’t a fire. There wasn’t any smoke. The custodians confirmed this along with the fire department,” Albers said.

Albers later stated that the fire department came as protocol, and checked to make sure that all parts of the school were safe.

Damon Bell, school resource officer, said that 200 students were evacuated from the school, which includes “the boys basketball team, girls basketball team, cheerleaders, [and] wrestlers.” Albers confirmed Bell’s estimation, adding that several fine arts students, staff members, and teachers were also present at the time of the event.

The newspaper staff was also present for the event.

Prior to the incident, Albers was patrolling the north side of the building. Once he heard the alarms go off, he, Bell, and the other faculty that had not left in the building “treated [the situation] just like any other fire drill and followed protocol, made an announcement [over the intercom,] and evacuated the building.”

Bell drove around the school, after everyone had evacuated. Then, Bell joined the faculty and patrolled the inside of the school to make sure that all people had left the building.

All students and faculty had evacuated, and all had cooperated.

“When people first hear fire alarms go off, they freak out, wondering ‘is this a fire drill,’ but once they calm down, they know what to do,” Bell said.