On Feb. 24, State College Area High School was evacuated after a small fire in a boiler room. Students evacuated to the North Turf field across the street from the South building and the South track. Classes resumed shortly after the evacuation.
School Resource Officer Matt Hertlein explained the cause of the fire; however, what started the fire is unknown at this time.
“There was a small mechanical fire in the boiler room,” Hertlein said. “A lot of times with electrical stuff, you never know [the cause of the fire], and we might not [ever] know. The school’s…electrician came right away and tried to figure everything out, but we didn’t do any follow-up on that at this time.”
Many students were surprised when the fire alarm went off, and there was confusion about whether it was a drill or an actual fire. Despite this, students successfully exited the building quickly.
“I had to send out a timeline of everything,” Hertlein said. “I mean, it took the students less than three minutes to evacuate to high school, which I mean 2400 students all around the school, which is a phenomenal timeline. Then we actually went to the fallback option, which [students] practiced earlier in the year with Officer Aston, where [they] crossed the street then…had to move farther away from the building, and that took two minutes. Like, to move that many people in an orderly fashion, too. And I’ll be honest, a lot of teachers said students stepped up because you guys knew where you were going.”
Junior Owen Viglione was one of the many students who evacuated quickly and orderly, even though he was caught off guard by the alarm.
“I was in the middle of…notes for English, and then the fire alarm rang. We walked down the stairway and then out the door,” Viglione said. “We had to go all the way out to the turf.”
Even after the students evacuated and crossed the street, the job wasn’t done for many staff members, including Hertlein. His job as SRO proved important in maintaining the safety and security of State High.
“My first priority of all is student and faculty safety,” Hertlein said. “I immediately got on my other work radio, and called dispatch and said, This is a legit working fire in the mechanical room. Make sure the fire department’s en route.”
The fire department arrived in less than five minutes. Their quick response time helped to ensure that the fire was extinguished quickly. Hertlein commended their rapid response time.
“I think they were four and a half minutes to get here, which is, I mean, fighting through traffic downtown, coming here, yeah, from the time [the] call went out, was good,” Hertlein said.
Viglione shared Hertlein’s sentiment. “I think it was successful. No one was hurt, and the issue was resolved quickly,” Viglione said.
The evacuation highlighted the importance of fire drills throughout the school year in order to keep students and staff safe.
“I think it’s important to just know what to do and where to go, so that when some[thing like] this actually happens, people aren’t just running around going crazy,” Viglione said.
Hertlein also stressed the importance of taking time out of class days to perform evacuation drills and what students should do in any evacuation, regardless if it’s a real evacuation or not.
“The biggest thing is, remain calm,” Hertlein said. “You never know when a real evacuation is going to occur.”
