When the fire alarm rang on June 9, most students in Bayonne High School assumed they were dealing with the usual twice-a-month drill.
“I was in English class when the alarm rang,” said Justin Fitzpatrick. “We all thought it was a drill until we got outside.”
Other students saw smoke billowing from the northernmost portion of the three-block-long school in a section commonly called the Annex – because it is physically separated from the southern section of the school – and officially called House 4, 5 and 6. No one was reported hurt or ill from the smoke, authorities said.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Two alarms
The two-alarm fire gutted a prop room just off the high school auditorium, sending smoke billowing out vents and doorways on two sides of the Annex Building. It also blew out a two-story window on the 30th Street side of the building.
Engine No. 3 responded first and took about 15 minutes to put out.
“We had the first report of the fire at 11:52 a.m.,” said Deputy Chief Joe Coughlin. “We were there in two to three minutes. We found the prop room in the Annex Building on fire.”
Coughlin said the room contained paint, cardboard, wood and other items that normally went into prop preparation, most of them flammable.
Vassili Loupatchev works near by and had his van parked on 30th Street. He rushed over to move the van when someone told him the school was on fire. He said saw plumes of smoke gushing out of an air vent above the door. The fire department arrived a moment later.
Student Joaquin Oritz said, “It was crazy. At first we thought there was a fire in the technical center, but we later learned it was near the auditorium.”
Evacuation
Coughlin said the prop room was gutted, with some suspected damaged to wiring that went through that room. The cement structure – an old style construction – contained the fire and kept it from spreading elsewhere.
While Coughlin said there was smoke and water damage, no other part of the school suffered from the flames.
Students said they thought they were responding to an ordinary fire drill until they got outside the building and saw the smoke billowing out the opposite side into the back court yard in the direction of the ice rink.
Rick Rodriguez, a social studies teacher at the high school, said the evacuation went very well.
“Everything worked as in the drills,” he said. “This shows you that the repetition works.”
Most of the students interviewed said the evacuation of the school went smoothly, but that some students were later confused when asked to go back inside.
Students that were in sections of the high school isolated from the fire were put into lockdown and kept in place until the fire department gave the all clear. Students in areas more affected by smoke were kept outside.
“This is standard procedure,” said Principal Richard Baccarella. “Once we understood the situation, we allowed students back into the other buildings. We brought others into the Ice Rink and took attendance. We do two drills a month so that everybody knows what to do. Even then, you always wonder what would happen if there was a real fire. Now we know. Everything worked exactly as it was supposed to work.”
Cause not yet known
Some students who were evacuated from rooms next to the auditorium said they heard that paint may have been involved in the fire in some way. The cause, according to Coughlin, is still being investigated.
Schools Superintendent Dr. Patricia McGeehan said students were sent home at 1:11 p.m. because the annex building was still being cleared of smoke.
“We had no health problems resulting from the smoke,” she said.
The prop room, she said, was right off the stage area, and that the fire was extinguished quickly because firefighters came in at it from two directions, and quickly put it out.
“The flames were so intense they broke the window,” Dr. McGeehan said, complementing the fire department for its rapid response. She also said a massive cleanup began as soon as the fire department allowed workers back into that section of the building so that the building was open the next day.
“We had everything cleaned up by 10:30 p.m.,” Dr. McGeehan said. “It’s like a miracle.”