Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
STUDENTS FILE past fire trucks to return to their classrooms Monday afternoon at Luther L. Wright K-12 School after firefighters responded to a small fire in a second-floor drinking fountain.
By RICHARD JENKINS
Ironwood - Ironwood firefighters responded to a report of a small fire at the Luther L. Wright K-12 School Monday.
The fire, reported shortly before 2:30 p.m., was caused by faulty wiring in a drinking fountain in the second floor back hallway.
"Ironically, we just had a fire drill about 15 minutes before this happened. So ... all the kids just followed all the procedures and did everything really well. We had the buses here immediately so we could put kids on buses to keep them warm while we were trying to figure it out," K-12 Principal Denise Woodward said. "We're glad it resolved to a good end."
Woodward said the students weren't in any danger during the fire and praised the district's new security monitoring system, which allowed fire department and district officials to review the security tapes to pinpoint the problem.
Woodward said smoke and flames were visibly coming out of the bottom of the drinking fountain.
In addition to the fortuitous timing with the fire drill, superintendent Tim Kolesar said the fire alarm actually went off while he was on the phone with someone from the district's booster club regarding the purchase of a new drinking fountain - with an attachment for filling water bottles - for the school.
"She was calling to say they met and they want to put a brand new water fountain right there," Kolesar said laughing. "That's the one they wanted to replace."
