SPASH classes canceled following Thursday fire call
By Brandi Makuski
It wasn’t your typical first day of school.
Metro Fire crews were called to SPASH, 1201 North Point Dr., at 10:29 p.m. on Thursday when a caller reported smoke in the building. Firefighters from Stevens Point, Plover, and Hull automatically respond to a scene where smoke and/or flames are reported in a structure.
Aug. 31 marked the first day of class for new students and incoming sophomores at the high school, which serves grades 10-12. Principal Jon Vollendorf said the building was evacuated as soon as staff members smelled smoke, shortly after the third class period had begun.
“The fire alarms did not go off; we evacuated before they even had a chance to — we smelled the smoke and we saw a haze towards the top of a room that nobody was in,” Vollendorf said. “We weren’t going to mess with that.”
Training Officer Anthony Ewing from the Stevens Point Fire Department said after a room-by-room search on the first floor of the building, firefighters located the source of the smoke.
“With the power outages in and out today, [SPASH] was on generator power and we weren’t really sure what was powered by those generators, so to be safe, we got in contact with WPS, and they shut all the power down, all the generators, so we were able to isolate that air handling unit and found out that it had a blown motor, and that’s what was causing the smoke in the building,” Ewing said.
After about an hour of searching and securing the building, the decision was made to cancel the remainder of the school day. With hand torches and flashlights in hand, firefighters escorted students back to their classrooms, where kids could retrieve their personal items.
Ewing confirmed there were no injuries and no damage to the building, but the strong smell of smoke in the school pushed firefighters and school leaders to send students home for the rest of the day.
“We were able to work with district and school staff and make a plan, with what they wanted to do and what we felt was best in terms of safety,” Ewing said. “They started to figure out bussing and parent pick-up right away.”
Christopher Nyman, assistant superintendent, arrived on the scene shortly after students were evacuated. Once the decision was made to send students home, he immediately called the district’s transportation office to arrange for busing.
“They contacted drivers to see who was available and they were able to get them over here as soon as possible,” he said. “It’s amazing how fast they responded.”
Nyman said while students and staff can never “really be fully prepared” for any emergency situation, he was proud of the way they reacted to the situation.
“Students and staff knew where to go and they stayed there until the announcement came that we weren’t going to go back into the building,” he said.
Vollendorf estimated 350-400 students and staff were at the school on Thursday.
“When you’ve got everybody scattered all across the building, it’s not easy to get everyone on the same page, and you get people thinking, ‘Is this just another drill?'” he said. “People were understandably nervous, but our staff stayed calm and did a good job. But it certainly isn’t how I envisioned our orientation day would go.”
