Small Fire Causes Close Call at High School

Burst Pipe Extinguishes Fire, School Contends with Water Damage

Emergency vehicles outside of Medford High School Sunday afternoon.

This story was originally published on Sunday afternoon and updated at 12:08PM and 3PM Monday, August 20, 2007.  Because of technical issues it was taken down and was just published again at 4:28PM Tuesday, August 21, 2007.

– Allison Goldsberry

A small fire inside a second floor classroom at Medford High School burned a hole in a pipe, causing it to burst and gush water early Sunday afternoon, according to School Superintendent Roy Belson.

Operations Director Jack Buckley said the fire started inside the wall of classroom B210 in the vocational school.  The fire burned so intensely that it melted a copper pipe that fed into a sink in the classroom, causing water to pour out into the classroom and, luckily, put out the fire.

Mayor Michael McGlynn said most of the damage to the school is from water and smoke.  Buckley said the water gushed for hours before fire officials responded, causing damage to the classromm and six adjacent rooms, as well as damage to the offices below.

Water seeped onto the first floor, causing some damage to the Superintendent’s office, nearby business offices, part of the library, and the video production area.  Parts of the ceiling came down in clumps in some areas.  Building and Grounds Supervisor Paul Edwards’ office sustained the most damage on the first floor.

Water also seeped into a room containing the school’s computer network, but so far it does not appear any equipment was damaged.

Buckley said luck and a “weird series of occurences” prevented the fire from spreading and causing more serious damage.

“We really got lucky.  It could have been much, much worse,” said Buckley.

The high schoo, built in the ’70’s, does not have a sprinkler system like the new schools.  Buckley said the building’s smoke alarms were not triggered because the water put out the fire before the smoke could be detected by the alarms.

If it wasn’t for Video Producation teacher Jack Dempsey and Athletic Director Bob Maloney alerting officials Sunday afternoon, the fire and water damage could have gone unnoticed until Monday morning.

Dempsey, coming into the school to put a program on Channel 15, called police after he walked into nearly an inch of water near a vocational school entrance.  Maloney, in another section of the building, smelled smoke and called the fire department.

Dempsey said he could smell smoke in the building and that the fire was still burning when firefighters discovered it in the second floor classroom.

According to Dempsey, the video producation department, located beneath the classroom where the fire started, sustained some water damage to the floors and ceilings but no equipment was damaged.

“Another hour or two or three of the water coming down the walls and through the ceiling and the video production equipment would have been completely wiped out,” said Dempsey.

Buckley commends the fire department for their quick response and said they did a “phenomenal job.”

The cause if the fire was still under investigation.  Buckley said it could be due to a possible electrical failure.

The school is in the process of cleaning up the damage but it should not impact the start of school.