A fire broke out in the laundry room on Saturday, Sept. 8 around 3:00 pm during a middle school volleyball tournament and theater rehearsals.

According to principal Mark Mimms in an email sent out to staff, the fire in the laundry room caused enough smoke that everyone was forced to evacuate the building. The fire was contained in the laundry room but all the contents in the dryer were burned.

“My main priority was [the] safety of everyone in the building,” Mr. Mimms said. “[My] second [priority] was that if the smoke of the fire got high enough, the sprinklers will be set off and cause a lot of damage to the school.”

A district-hired restoration company started cleaning up Saturday evening by putting “scrubbers,” machines that filter out the air, around the school. The machines were removed from the hallways Tuesday evening, Sept. 11.

Due to the “Musical Comedy Murders of 1940,” show date coming up, theater students were rehearsing for the show on the day of the fire. According to freshman Jennissa Rico, the fire alarms suddenly went off without warning.

“I was pretty scared,” Rico said. “I was panicking and had no idea what was going on. I was slightly terrified.”

According to Theater Teacher Melody Copeland, it was a damp and smokey experience for her and her students.

“At first I thought it was a drill, so I followed along, went outside and then realized that it had to be real,” senior Cambria Dyess said. “The firetrucks started to show up and they got a gurney out for supplies at one point. [The other theater students and I] started getting freaked out, the teachers were telling us to stand back and move away.”

No one was hurt in the fire.

“You can’t really prevent this, there’s always a potential out there,” Mr. Mimms said.