Update 2 (7:52 p.m.): At 7:25 p.m., Head of School Meredith Essalat sent a newsletter to the community recapping the day’s events and assured everyone that the school is now safe. She also announced that the smoke was caused by an old ballast and confirmed that our pre-existing fire drill is still scheduled for this Friday. The drill will serve as an opportunity for everyone to “continue to practice safe and effective evacuation techniques,” as stated in Essalat’s newsletter.
Update 1 (5:07 p.m.): Evacuation is over, students returned safely to the building.
On Wednesday afternoon after school, local first responders arrived on campus due to students’ reports of smoke coming from the basement. Junior Maia Kawaguchi was walking to the bathroom downstairs when she first saw the smoke.
“We were passing by the lockers and we were one of the first people to see it. We just saw a bunch of smoke and you could clearly see it since it was super thick. It also smelled really bad. After we saw the smoke we ran upstairs trying to find a teacher,” said Kawaguchi.
Science Department Chair Elizabeth Hegarty is reported to have been ushering students out of the building until the alarms finally went off.
“We were about to leave to get Starbucks before practice and all of a sudden we went outside and saw the cheer team telling us to evacuate the building. We were so confused so I went back in to grab my bags which is when the fire alarm started going off super loud. Everyone was screaming and started running out of the school. There were fire trucks and police,” said sophomore Gia Rivera.
“There was a report of smoke at the school,” said Belmont Police Officer Tomas Castellanos. “The smoke has been taken care of and shouldn’t affect the school at all.”
Some sports practices have been resumed with volleyball and cheer continuing like normal. Others, like flag football, have been canceled completely. Additional after school activities such as Mock Trial have been asked to relocate from their usual meeting areas.
The cause of the smoke is still unknown at this time.
*This is a breaking news story. There will be more information to follow.
