On December 8, minutes before 5th period was to start, a fire alarm was heard throughout the school. The alarm was declared as false and students across the campus remained in their seats, however, it was no ordinary false alarm. The students in the hallway with rooms 20-28 had to walk through a thick yellow haze caused by the residue of a dropped fire extinguisher even after the alarm was declared as false.

The accidental incident took place in room 24 during Mrs. Deming’s yearbook class. As students were piling into the classroom ready to get straight to work as deadlines are soon approaching, a student made a quick swift turn of her body and accidentally hit the fire extinguisher with her bag. “We were recently talking about how the fire extinguisher was loose, so when she accidentally hit it with her bag it exploded inches away from me,” recalls Angel Ocon, a senior on the yearbook staff who was at the heart of the incident. 

Many students who experienced the setting off of the fire extinguisher felt as though they were in a movie. As if in slow motion the fire extinguisher fell to the floor engulfing the room in a thick, chalk-like substance making it difficult to not only see but to breathe as well. In all but a few seconds, the entire room and hallway were filled with this “death chalk”, as Aiden Deming called it. 

“As we were evacuating, my shoe made a visible imprint on the floor due to the fine powder, and there was this yellow haze everywhere, as everyone was fleeing all we could think was ‘wow that just happened’,” expresses Aiden Deming, a senior on the yearbook staff. The adrenaline quickly kicked in as students fled from the scene. Shock, among many feelings, is all these students felt. 

After the haze had cleared, the students returned to the classroom to grab their personal belongings, everything was covered with the yellowish film. From backpacks to laptops, to all of the Harry Potter decor, not a crevice in the classroom was safe from the residue left behind from the fire extinguisher. “When we went to get all of our stuff, my backpack was completely covered with the powder that when you would hit it, the powder would pop off. It was kind of crazy,” shared Chloe Austin, the managing editor of the yearbook staff. 

With the district’s awareness of the matter, they have scheduled professionals to restore the room to its original glory. As deadlines for the yearbook staff are soon approaching, exigence for the classroom to be cleared and ready for use is of the essence. These students will continue to work hard to meet their deadline, and will not let this accident hold them back from creating a memorable yearbook for the 2021-2022 school year.