On Thursday February 9th, the Portland Fire department was called by an RHS teacher to put out a fire that had started outside of the Roosevelt building.
During second period, a small fire started in the dust collection port of a router table. That caused sparks to be sucked up into the collection equipment and outside to the machinery. The fire was never actually inside the building and the wood shop was barley filled with smoke. This event isn't uncommon but the issue was that "the dust collection system is supposed to have a fire suppression apparatus that failed" and didn't stop the sparks from becoming a true fire said Mr. Todd Kimmich, the new wood shop teacher who called the fire department. After a few hours and well into third period, the fire had gotten big enough to set off an alarm in wood shop. After looking for the source of the alarm and discovering the fire, the fire department was called and the fire alarm was pulled which triggered the school wide evacuation.
According to the Portland Fire Chief, the school did very well with the evacuation and everything one would want to happen during a fire happened. There was no structural damage to the building and no community members were injured.
By Ellie Weiner
Photography by Eleanor Black
Roosevelt High School
Published February 15 , 2023