By: Erin Richardson, Elsie Gin, Ian Harden & Jack Begin

A small fire discovered in the boy’s bathroom on the first floor of Cony High School led to a full school evacuation on Monday morning.

No one was injured and the fire was rapidly extinguished by Mr. Poulin and Mr. Pelletier, whose classrooms are near the bathroom where the fire was set. Mr. Pelletier found a roll of toilet paper on fire on the floor of the bathroom and a melted toilet paper dispenser inside a locked bathroom stall.

A student came into his classroom at the beginning of third period and alerted him of the fire while he was prepping for his next class.

“A student comes in and says, ‘I think there’s a fire in the boy’s bathroom,’ so I go out and sure enough I open the door and there is in the middle stall a big pool of toilet paper burning,” Mr. Pelletier said.

He went to Mr. Poulin’s nearby classroom and said, “There’s a fire in the bathroom.”

Mr. Poulin went into the bathroom and stomped it out with his feet and put water on it, while Mr. Pelletier went to the janitor’s room to retrieve a fire extinguisher. Mr. Poulin said he went into the bathroom just to check that no students were in there.

“He’s the one that actually saved the day,” Mr. Pelletier said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Millett, the school athletic director, pulled the fire alarm in the gym initiating the evacuation and alerting the fire department.

He instructed students to evacuate the building repeatedly saying, “This is a real fire, this is not a drill.”

The Augusta Fire Department sent multiple trucks to the school. Firefighters spoke with Principal Kim Silsby at the front entrance and then went into the building.

Students were able to enter the building again before the end of third period. The boy’s bathroom was closed for the remainder of the day with “closed for cleaning” tape.