It was about fifteen - twenty minutes after class started. I was in gym. I had gotten changed into my gym clothes, putting my regular clothes, keys, wallet, etc. into the locker. I then went upstairs to the gym where my teacher took attendence. We then proceeded into the weight room. About ten seconds later, the fire alarms went off.
Everyone just sort of stood around, not really knowing what to do. We walked out of the weight room, outside to the bleachers of the football field.
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After a while, we realized something wasn’t right (it wasn’t just a drill) because the teachers made us go stand by the fence, where we’re SUPPOSED to stand.
Some also saw wisps of smoke at the top of the building.
After a while, about a half hour, the teachers said to go to the fieldhouse. We all went, and one of the deans was trying to talk with a bullhorn, but it wasn’t working very well (1500 students). He dismissed us after about a half hour.
There was one problem. I was wearing shorts and a stinky white T-shirt, and I didn’t have my wallet or keys. It took them about twenty minutes to finally let the gym classes go back into the locker rooms and change (the fire was nowhere near the locker rooms).
The fire was in a third floor bathroom, supposedly started by someone smoking and throwing the cigarette into an air vent. Fire was contained easily. No injuries or anything of the kind. I’ll probably have to go back to school tomorrow. It was an interesting experience.
The news reported that the firemen believe it was intentional. Someone ripped the cover off the air vent, lit some paper, and threw it in. Estimate of $5,000 damage.
“Bunch of savages in this town.” Sorry…just seemed to fit…
That sorta sucks Garf…Did you get to go home early that day? Kinda reminds me of the bomb threat at my high school about 2 years ago…teachers came into the classrooms during 2nd period and told kids to evacuate to the bleachers…After 2 hours, we got to go home…There was no bomb, so it was pretty sweet…but I digress…
Anyway…bummer about the cost and be glad you weren’t hurt!
In high school, one of my friends used to use the payphones in the school to call in bomb threats when she didn’t feel like going to class. The school would go to Defcon 3 and everyone would be sent home. It was, of course, stupid as hell, and when she got caught, they started locking up the payphones during the school day.
We also had a few fires started by kids smoking in the bathrooms. Sure, we had security guards who were supposed to be checking on that kind of thing, but usually they’d leave kids alone if they gave the guards a couple of butts.
Wow, it’s amazing how little I miss high school now that I think about it.
Many years ago, when I was a sophamore they built a new school and were going to make it a Jr. High. That meant we got to stay in the old school. A week or two before the end of the year the old school burnt to the ground (after school was out). Girls cried, but I thought it was great since we could go to the new school. The strange thing is that there was plenty of room for all the classes in the new school.
Eh, that’s peaches compared to my high school experience.
I am guessing it was 1985…after a huge snow storm our gymnasium’s roof caved in (A different building than the main part of the school and the auditorium.) We had a “snow day” and people would have been in the gym when the roof collapsed. We had an extended free vacation and when they let us back in my brother (he got away with so much tom-foolery) and his friend “found” cracks in the ceiling.
School was closed again for the engineers to check all the buildings and let us back in again.
Man it was a blast. When they closed the school early that day, my brother and I had an impromtu pot party. My parents never knew why all the food was gone after only one day. Nothing tastes as fine as microwaved pizza rolls while stoned and jamming to Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin.
Sorry…just seemed to fit…