Students and staff at Westside High School experienced confusion at around 10:40 a.m., when a fire alarm malfunctioned and led to many believing that they needed to evacuate the building. 

“[My English large group] evacuated [from] room 220,” Sophomore Jack Wimmer said. “[The alarm] started for about 30 seconds then stopped completely.”

According to Wimmer, his large group responded to the alarm as if there was a fire and began evacuating until Principal Jay Opperman announced on the intercom that it was a malfunction and that an evacuation was not necessary.

“It was funny to see everybody so confused,” Wimmer said. “[My large group] didn’t seem to mind losing a couple minutes due to the confusion.”

Opperman said that the fire sprinkler company Westside works with was at the high school replacing a fire sprinkler head and accidentally triggered the alarm.

“[Initially], the technician didn’t even know why [the alarm] went off,” Opperman said. “There was no real fire and this wasn’t a planned drill.”

Although the alarm sounding was unintentional, Opperman was pleased with the way faculty, teachers and students responded to the drill.

“[Our school] does [different types of] drills and although they can be annoying, [they are necessary to make sure] we know to do the right thing when the [alarm] sounds,” Opperman said.