Parents, students, teachers and staff evacuated the new Carthage High School after a fire alarm went off, but an official says the building was not damaged and everyone was allowed back in shortly.
Principal Kandy Frazier said a malfunctioning kiln in the art department cause some smoke and fire but the building was not damaged and no one was hurt.
She said parent-teacher conferences, which were going on at the time of the incident, were interrupted.
She also said the building’s sophisticated fire alarm told her exactly where the problem was as soon as the alarm sounded.
“I went to the panel and it told me exactly where the fire was,” Frazier said. “The lights and doors worked perfectly and the evacuation was orderly. The system was awesome. It’s a really great safety feature and some parents got to see how well it works first hand.”
Initially officials thought pottery with the wrong type of glaze had been placed in the kiln but Frazier said teachers discovered it was the kiln itself that was faulty.
Apparently the kiln, an oven that is used to bake clay artwork and pottery, actually caught fire twice, but the fire was isolated and did not damage the room or building.
The fire department was summoned and the incident was quickly controlled.
Frazier said this was the second time the fire alarm system had been tripped since students occupied the building in March, but the first time anyone had been evacuated from the building.
The first incident was a malfunctioning dish washer in the kitchen that produced a cloud of steam that set off a smoke sensor, but officials found the problem and fixed it before the fire alarm was tripped or anyone was evacuated.
