Today at 10:43 AM, a light fixture in one of the classrooms had caught fire. At 10:45, The fire alarm was activated. The system consists of Wheelock NS, a Gentex GOS, and 7002-Ts. (Full System Linked Here) When we were walking outside the building, we heard sirens in the distance. A few minutes later, The Fire Department Showed up. When the FD was investigating the fire, it started hailing on us. Everyone ran to the solar panels. Once the fire was out, the all clear was given and we went inside DRENCHED with water. Thankfully, no one was reported hurt. The school is still operational and I’m in my fourth period class writing this.
2 Likes
Sounds like a textbook structure fire to me in terms of the way everything went: building caught fire, fire alarm sounded, everyone evacuated safely, fire department showed up & extinguished the fire, & everyone was allowed to go back in some minutes later. So nice to hear that everything went as it should have, glad everyone’s alright & the school’s mostly still intact. Incidents like this one prove what having proper fire protection systems & emergency procedures in place can do.
Any idea if the alarm system was actuated manually or automatically?
My Best Guess was manually. There was a Pull Station outside the classroom in the hallway. There are only True-Alarm Smokes in the hallways, and the sprinklers shouldn’t have activated that fast.
I can ask one of the monitors or the Dean Of Students and reply to what I received.
The main panel most likely has a log of everything that’s happened since it was first powered up: that should have record of what device was activated & which type it was.
Depends on how close the fire was to the sprinklers - did you see if the area the fire was in was also drenched? I guess that might be a moot point considering the FD extinguished the fire, but if the light fixture was either in the ceiling or hanging off of it it may have tripped a sprinkler. Most of the time, a QR sprinkler can activate within seconds of an incipient fire especially if it’s close to the ceiling (something on the order of three seconds from personal experience).
I’d advise against going to the panel and looking through the history log yourself - you don’t want to give off the impression that you’re messing with the system. Ask an admin if they know, and if they don’t, don’t push the issue.
Ah yes, if the school has a sprinkler system that may have helped control or even put out the fire too.
By that I meant they’d ask the school staff if they could have them or a technician go through the log to find out what device was activated.
2 Likes
I was about to say that I was against that as well. I don’t have access to the panel, and I don’t want to get in trouble.
Especially after a real fire. Keep the data of the panel intact , not getting’em contaminated or modified unintentionally. Forensics are needed to be done to the panel sometimes in order to decide who is responsible to the fire outbreak. You will certainly not be willing to leave any suspicious trace indicating that you have tampered the devices, which could possibly get you charged as guilty
1 Like
Oh yeah btw today the same school got a Gas Leak and we had to evacuate again. I have that article linked here if you want to check it out.
1 Like
In. Tappan Middle School in Ann Arbor, MI; We had a real fire. I was sitting in my English class and the fire alarms(MOSTLY 7002ts but a few other models here and there)went off. The 7002Ts were very loud and I covered my ears and went outside with the rest of the class. When we got there, we notice 4 fire engines pulling up to the school. Apparently the Home-Economics kitchen caught fire; someone burned French fry grease. Pioneer High School also had a fire, some dumb student lit a bathroom trash can in C wing 2nd floor. There was also a fire at Bryant Elemetnary; so 3 schools of 4 I attended. No one was seriously hurt of injured. These drills can and will pay off; the more you do the routine; the more you know right away what to do and where to go.
Seems like the frying machines were not protected by a wet-chem kitchen suppression system, which is ideal for detecting and eliminating fires caused by fat and grease so that the danger wouldn’t have gone out of the door of kitchen and triggered a general evac.
1 Like
I was in the classroom across when the alarm activated, the pull station was not activated, I believe it was the room across from 6th grade reading, That is where Engine 7’s crew had the hand line stretched into.
1 Like
Welcome! Nice to see you here on the forums!
That makes a lot of sense, The incident commander must have activated it at the panel. (There is a Pull Station next to the Fire Alarm Control Panel).
1 Like
Yea, I’m wondering if there was a delay in activation from when the smoke was first discovered. TFD Battalion 2 and Engine 7 had entered the parking lot right as we were evacuating. Keep in mind they were responding on a commercial structure fire, so they would have had to put on turnout and SCBA. I have a screenshot of the initial dispatch, I believe it was 10:40 when the call came in, First due arrived at 10:46. It also smelled wierd during 3rd passing. I was a 6th grader at the time.
Odd.
So did the school monitoring system call dispatch prior to the sounding of the alarms? Or did the Simplex 4005 (FACP) call the monitoring system upon activation?
1 Like
Based on what I know, TUSD security monitors all of the districts security and fire alarm systems, if it came in as a fire alarm, I doubt it would have been dispatched as a Commercial fire, rather it would have been dispatched as a fire alarm. I believe office called School Safety, who then contacted 911 (This would explain why not all of the correct information was given to responding units). I am thinking Dispatch advised school safety to let the school know to evacuate, This would explain why a gap between time of dispatch and alarm activation.
Yea that makes sense now that I think of it. I was going to mention it in my last post but forgot to.
1 Like
Yea, on another note, I believe I found an old space age electronics junction box in the courtyard. I am assuming there used to be a horn strobe in the courtyard.
Space Age? I thought the school’s original system was Cerberus Pyrotroncs. The 7002t’s in the cafeteria and office are branded Cerberus Pyrotronics, and there is a CP Motor bell in the courtyard. There was a vlog of someone activating the system for a drill in 2002, and he mentioned that the pull stations were also by Cerberus Pyrotroncs. So sometime in the mid 2000’s the panel, smokes and pull stations were replaced with Simplex equipment.
I’ll try to find it though.
1 Like
Mind linking that vlog? I would love to see that. I am wondering if it was an add on to the original system or the district did a bit of mixing up junction boxes. They are weird when it comes to fire alarms. I’ll make a post on that later. It looks like it hasn’t been operational in a while however.