Unplanned fire drill evacuates Blazers before start of school day

An unplanned fire drill at 6:55 a.m. on Thursday was triggered by faulty alarms in the school's fire alarm system, according to an announcement made by Principal Darryl Williams during second period. The administration found that the evacuation was not due to a fire or smoke, but malfunctioning alarms.

The early morning drill was just a false alarm, according to Blair Building Service Manager Yak Agbonselobho. "It wasn't a big thing, just a faulty fire alarm," he said.

The faulty alarm will not jeopardize the rest of the school's alarm system, according to Assistant Principal Myriam Rogers. "It was just a section of the system that tripped," Rogers said.

Although the fire drill evacuated students from the school, it did not disrupt the first block class of the day, as Blazers had enough time to reenter the school building before the first bell at 7:17, according to Principal Darryl Williams. "It didn't disrupt the school day at all because the alarm went off at 6:55," Williams said.

Blair has had previous similar issues with the faulty alarms, according to Williams. After yesterday's evacuation, the administration alleviated any safety concerns the Blair community may have by calling in officials to fix the defective alarms. "The fire marshal came, checked it out and fixed the problem," Rogers said.