Fire alarm sets off suddenly due to water pressure

by Zion P.

The school day at AHS was going normal as always, but due to a sudden accident that caused the fire alarm to abruptly activate, students were rushed outside in a panic as teachers and staff tried their best to handle the situation. This incident occurred in late August during 2nd block.

The most important part of this story is that, during the school day, at AHS, students were going through the school day as normal, attending all their classes as usual. During the second block of the day, at AHS, as the students were getting ready to switch for Nest, the fire alarm was abruptly activated as students got up from their chairs in a panic as everyone began to rush out of the school building. Doing the same procedure that they do each time there’s a fire emergency, whether it’s a drill or the real thing, the teachers lined up the students in pairs and did roll call, everyone presented there was present. Students and teachers waited for a while, and after a bit of waiting passed, the teachers and students gathered themselves together and headed inside the building. Afterwards, the fire alarm continued to go off and as rumors spread about the incident, the principal came on air and told the students to not worry since the fire alarm was only activating continuously due to a water pressure incident. It was later fixed and the students went back to their normal activities.

Also of note, during the whole incident of the fire alarm being abruptly activated, students began to spread rumors about them all thinking that a student was pulling the fire alarm instead of it being an accident or a drill. This rumor was later debunked by the principal, who cited a water pressure issue as the cause for the false alarm. Also, during the incident, a small group of students came together and thought that instead of some student pulling the fire alarm repeatedly, there was a real fire in the building. Once again, this theory was later debunked by the principal.

Not a too important detail, but still noteworthy nonetheless, students and staff weren't really too worried about the fire alarm being abruptly activated. Yes, it was quite alarming at first. But soon everyone calmed down and followed procedure. Then afterwards, students went back to their usual activities without any more interruptions.

Although this alarm was false, there actually has been a real fire before that erupted in the Airport High school. In 2016, a fire started in an HVAC unit attached to the 700 building, where JROTC now practices. . Students were relocated to Fulmer, next door to AHS, and sent home after the fire fighters came over and stopped the fire from getting any bigger. An article from WACH Fox reported, “Bill James, superintendent of Lexington District 2, said the fire was caused due to electrical issues and that it started in the vocational wing.” At the time of the fire, the 700 building housed cosmetology classes.

Another fact is that  fires are more prone to start in dry places like bathrooms or cafeteria’s due to the dry air that’s always around those places.

According to one website, after automatic fire alarms go off, about 98% of the confirmed incidents are false alarms — i.e. only ~2% were actual fires among automatic fire alarm activations.

To end this article off, let’s look ahead. The next fire alarm is scheduled for October 3, according to a document shared by Mr. Pumphrey with teachers.