An unexpected maintenance issue on Monday, August 18, 2025 caused all students and staff to evacuate the building in the summer heat and await an all clear for almost an hour. At approximately 8:00 am, a disturbance in the HVAC system created smoke around the science wing of the building queuing fire alarms to sound throughout the building. 

As Assistant Principal, Joe Hartley got a behind the scenes view of what was going on.

 “When we get a fire alarm here in the building, there is an automated system that shuts down the air conditioning and heating system,” Hartley said. “That is done so that if there is a legitimate fire, the fire does not travel though the air ducts and HVAC system. So it’s all shut down and until we reset the fire alarm system, the HVAC does not come back on.” 

The emphasis throughout this event was how long it took.
“We had to figure out where the fire was and it took us a long time to figure out where the origin of the fire was, and until we did that, we couldn’t turn the system back on,” Hartley said. 

It took almost an hour before it was found by staff and no one could return into the building until then. Even after it was safe to return to the building it took another hour to hour and a half for the AC to restore and begin working effectively again. 

After over 30 mins outside, it was clear this wasn’t a usual fire drill. As speculation swarmed about what was going on, the loud, bustling fire trucks came zooming in. Students and staff quickly became miserable in the heat. Junior English teacher Jordan Hill awaited amongst the students. 

“At first, they were excited to go outside, but then the heat got to us and we were less excited,” Hill said. 

According to Hartley, the extreme conditions present on this day made the experience an obstacle.

 “It was so hot, there was no airflow outside, it was very humid, so we wanted to make sure everything was ok with all the students,” he said. “They were outside for almost an hour, which is very difficult.”

Procedures laid out beforehand come into play in a situation like this. 

“In the case of a fire alarm, the administrators go through the school and make sure the school is clear.” Hartley said.  “In this case, it was not a drill, it was a real alarm so we had to make sure that the kids outside were safe and the teachers were safe.”

Once safety of all students and staff is assured the administrators work to assist the fire department and maintenance crew. 

Student Ilda Vasquez, who was near the smoke, described it as grey, not so dark, and somewhat thick. Initially, there was a question rather this was a real instance for evacuation. 

“It was shocking.” Vasquez said. “No one reacted because we were always hearing [the alarms] like no one thought it was serious.”

After so many instances where a wire is tripped or the alarm is possibly pulled, it is not always possible even for staff to be sure when an alarm is a genuine indication of danger. 

“I suspected it might be a false alarm, but I still made my students get up and go because you have to treat them like they’re real.” Hill said. “I was a little concerned that everyone sat still so long.” 

Once everyone was back in the building, this disruption made it difficult to return to instruction.

“It was hard to stay focused for the rest of the day because we were all like sweaty and sticky,” Hill said. 

All in all, this unanticipated bump in the school day surprised most. 

“I would only say that I’ve been through a bunch of fire alarms that were legitimate and I’ve been through a lot that were fire drills but this situation the other day was very unusual because we had smoke coming out of a particular area but we couldn’t identify the origin or reason for the smoke,” Hartley said. “So we searched and searched, it was very difficult trying to find out what it was, but we reset the system, got the AC back on, and there was no problem after that.”