Senior Frankie Jiang thought tearing his ACL would be the biggest obstacle going into the school year. But with unexpected fire evacuations added to the mix, Jiang said he now faces the added struggle of navigating long distances on crutches, a situation he was not prepared for.
“It’s good for people to notice that there’s a fire happening in school and to [evacuate] immediately,” Jiang said. “But if this is someone’s joke who just wants to make fun in school, I think it shows disrespect to the entire school, to the teachers, and the students. Students should be using time to actually learn [rather] than waste time on other people’s jokes.”
Within the first eight days of school, the fire alarm system went off twice. San Mateo Union High School District Director of Facilities and Construction Charlie Royce said the first alarm, on the morning of Wednesday, Aug. 13, was triggered by heat from a combi oven in the kitchen. That same week, on Friday, Aug. 15, the system sounded during passing period between lunch and fifth period, prompting a school-wide evacuation. Royce said the alarm went off because someone activated a pull station in the portables.
In both instances, no fires occurred. Royce, who oversaw the completion of the District-Wide Fire Alarm Replacement and HVAC Controls Projects over the summer, said the two incidents were “legitimate activations that have nothing to do with the construction of the system.” He added that the pull station, in particular, has to be activated by hand.
Principal Jen Fong said she initially believed that the pull station was not activated manually. But after discussing with the district, she said her “belief that it wasn’t pulled is likely inaccurate.”
Following the Aug. 15 fire alarm, Fong investigated the pull station incident. According to Fong, the “involved” adult and the student in the portable denied activating it, bringing the investigation to a halt. Fong said anyone who tampers with the fire alarm pull system could face suspension and fines.
Outside of the administration’s investigation, some students and staff said they were confused and concerned by the abrupt schoolwide evacuation.
“I do wish they had addressed it more,” sophomore Zoe Sener said. “I personally felt very scared about it. I was worried that there was an actual fire going on, and we never really got clarification on what happened.”
Biology teacher Aiko Michot held a similar view and noted that students showed little urgency during the evacuation. As a new teacher, Michot said she was unsure of the school’s evacuation protocol on Aug. 15. She attributes this situation to attending a textbook training instead of a new-hire training, which were training sessions for new teachers before the school year began.
“I noticed when it first went off, nobody really took it seriously,” Michot said. “So I think that our attitude, both as staff and students, were that of confusion and also mistrust. Like, should we really be leaving [to evacuate]? I think that creates an unsafe campus for everybody, and uses up the resources [of our] firefighters… I may not know the backend of the story, but it doesn’t just affect the school; it affects the entire community.”
During the Aug. 15 evacuation, history teacher Jim Chin was administering an Advanced Placement World History quiz. The interruption forced Chin to rearrange his class schedule for the day. Chin said frequent evacuations in the future could be problematic.
“If it’s for a lecture, I could probably figure out ways to make up for it, but any sort of debate or fun activity, it feels bad and [the fire alarms] could be really disruptive,” Chin said. “Definitely, they could throw a big wrench into our plans, but at the same time, we need to know if there’s a fire.”
Looking ahead, Fong said she “one hundred percent” foresees more fire evacuations, particularly because of students vaping in the bathrooms.
“If students vape in the bathroom, I will catch you and I will suspend you, especially if the fire alarm goes off,” Fong said.
For now, the district has collaborated with administrators to implement preventative measures. According to Royce, the school administration has re-emphasized the procedure for activating the kitchen’s range hoods, and Burlingame’s on-campus operations team is currently implementing pre-alarms — covers placed over pull stations — on all uncovered pull stations across campus. Strikers, tools used to safely ignite Bunsen burners, were also provided to all chemistry classes to avoid using matches.
As the school year continues, Michot said she hopes the school community can learn from these incidents to improve evacuation procedures and overall school safety.
“This is a teachable moment,” Michot said. “I don’t feel like people are intentionally malicious or trying to create harm. I think that either an accident happens or there’s poor judgment, and I feel that it is important to say that we’re human, but some of the impact can be really severe and impact many people.”
