Trash can set afire causes student evacuation

During 6th period today, the fire alarm rang throughout the school. Fire drills are a common practice at Palmetto, therefore many students were unaware of the danger that resided in the upstairs hallway of the 2000s building.

“I could hear these kids in the bathroom laughing and then after running through the halls,” sophomore Vanessa Garcia said, who was in Mrs. Margarita Falagan’s class when it happened. “Then, almost immediately after, the fire alarm went off so we all just guessed that they pulled it.”

A trash can in one of the bathrooms was set afire and caused the evacuation of the entire school.

“We started leaving and I looked over to my left and the bathroom was all smoke,” senior Iver Iturralde said. “I didn’t see the trash though, but there was so much smoke coming out of there.”

Security and administration had the building on lockdown, taking students out from their classes beforehand. Students were allowed back in at the end of the period to retrieve any of their belongings.

“We walked out and we saw the smoke,” junior Alyssa Sanchez said “There was fire in the boy’s bathroom. It was crazy.”

The hallway smelled of burnt plastic. Administration placed fans in the hallways to further ventilate the space in an effort to minimize the smell . They also offered to relocated classes affected by the occurrence to the auditorium for the remainder of the day.

“God, all I could think about was the smell of burnt rubber,” sophomore Marin Gerrish said. “It was the grossest smell I have ever experienced.”

The fire was extinguished and the remains of the bin lay on the side of the building, with a hole through the bottom side, where the flame had eaten up the plastic.

“[Mr. Leandro] Ramos put out the fire.” junior Nicole Poplewko said. “What a hero.”