Smoke clears out new school

Smoke from an electrical panel in the new school kitchen set off an alarm and caused evacuation of some 700 students at about 9:20 a.m. Tuesday.

The incident put the Lake Roosevelt schools' emergency plan into action and students were walked to the old Lake Roosevelt High School gym to await the arrival of parents and buses to take them home for the day.

School will remain closed for students Wednesday while the electrical problem is repaired.

Staff, however, will report for duty, and one of the things that will happen is officials will review how well the school emergency plan worked and what could be done to make it better.

Grand Coulee Dam School District Superintendent Dennis Carlson said Tuesday afternoon that the electrical contractor, Mills Electric, would be in the building in the evening to start the repairs.

Carlson stated that the problem was in the main circuit breaker board, and that the system is under warranty. Smoke was minimal and in itself wasn't a problem. One staff member said they didn't notice any smoke.

The fire marshall shut the building down and people were not allowed in. There were no injuries, and the emergency plan appeared to be working well.

Students gathered in the gym, filling most of the bleachers, and parents who arrived for their children had to go to the old high school office where a checkout system was in place.

Parents were not allowed in the gym without first going through the checkout procedures.

High school Principal Brandon Byers called upon his student leadership team to help with the younger children.

Carlson said prior to Tuesday the staff had had a "paper walk-through" of what to do in an emergency. The school had also had one fire drill. "Everything worked well, and we will improve on that," Carlson said.

Monitors were everywhere dealing with the movement of adults and children.

At 10:15 a.m. calls for specific buses were being made in the gym, and students were taken to their buses in an orderly manner.

When the alarm sounded staff and students moved outside to their evacuation sites. Because of the colder weather, everyone was moved to the gym.