Billowing clouds of black smoke heralded the first on-campus fire Kennedy High School has experienced in over twenty years, as a fire erupting on the roof of the under construction library put the constant drilling of fire evacuations to the test on Thursday, December 4th.
According to sophomore Angel Hidalgo, the first signs of smoke appeared at approximately 9:55 p.m., just moments before alarms sounded through campus.
School resumed under normal conditions the following day, but for a period of time on that Thursday morning, students were caught up in a mixture of fascination and fear as they evacuated to the football field during 2nd period.
According to a construction worker who asked to remain anonymous, “welders were working on the new building, but insulation had been thrown onto the roof the week before. One of the sparks from the welding hit the insulation and it started the fire.”
Students poured out of classrooms, many torn between panic and an unexpected excitement at the possibility of classes being canceled. Deep black smoke plagued the sky, helicopters hovered overhead, and a number of news crews arrived to capture live shots of the unfolding incident.
The LAFD responded quickly, as fire trucks and professionals descended on the campus quickly, and the actual fire was put out in a relatively short amount of time. Police and paramedics dispersed around the perimeter and interior of the school, attempting crowd control with the treatment of troubled students and anxious parents alike.
Students on the football field were milling about, with many trying to take pictures or video of the blaze. However, the smoke from the fire quickly spread to that football field, which resulted in everybody having to leave the football field and head to the backup emergency location, the Kennedy baseball field.
“It was kind of chaotic,” said freshman Gina Miranda.
From there, most students followed orders, but some students were trying to get to their parents who had arrived to remove their kids from the campus. A few others scaled the fences, although they were quickly identified amidst it all.
Freshman Damian Vallejo, who got caught up in the chaos surrounding the parental pick-up situation, spoke out his opinion “These cops and staff don’t know what to do because these kids just want to get out of here and don’t know how to handle a serious situation.”
After the fire was put out by 3rd period, the decision was made to change the day to a minimum one because district officials still needed to make sure all the classrooms were clean and habitable, including checking air filtration systems, in order for school to resume as normal the following day.
The constant stream of false fire alarms throughout the school year has often led students to ignore them, akin to the boy who cried wolf. On that Thursday morning, the wolf actually came to Kennedy.
