At about 7:20 a.m. this morning, students evacuated the building for approximately 20 minutes due to a fire alarm sounding.

Administration isn’t currently aware of what activated the alarms, but believes the cause to be a decrease in sprinkler water pressure. An annunciator board in the main office indicating what area of the building set off the alarm doesn’t reveal the issue, said principal Alan Goodwin.

Because the alarm went off before first period officially begins at 7:25 a.m., students weren’t necessarily in their classrooms, and some were still arriving. During most fire drills, students are directed and guided by their teachers, but because of the alarm’s timing, some students were unsure of where to go, if anywhere.

“I was thinking ‘is this real?’ because we never have drills before school starts,” said senior Allie Peck.

Any time the fire alarms sound, unless it’s a scheduled drill, the fire department has to respond.

When the school plans fire drills, the administration calls the fire department and Ark Systems, the alarm company, to notify them that they shouldn’t respond. The school is required to have two fire drills within the first 30 days or school and one each month after that. Overall, Goodwin was impressed with student cooperation, he said.

“It actually worked out pretty well because kids all had their coats, they all had their backpacks, they walked outside and they all cooperated,” Goodwin said. “Now, we don’t have to have one in November.”