A fire alarm sounded throughout the MTHS campus today, Dec. 4, at around 9:30 a.m., in the middle of third period. Staff members directed students to evacuate the building and wait with their PASS class on the football field behind the school until the building was declared safe to enter. Students re-entered the building at about 9:50 a.m. and returned to their third period classes.

The fire alarm was not a drill. Teachers had no notice of the evacuation prior to it taking place. Generally, fire drills take place during PASS on Wednesdays, Thursdays or Fridays when PASS is held.

The administration and maintenance staff were quickly able to determine there was no active fire on campus and the cause of the fire alarm sounding off was found to be a malfunction in one of the fire sensors. The fire sensors automatically set off the fire alarm if one of them detects smoke or abnormalities inside of the building, which could be indicative of a fire. The fire alarm was set off by this automatic system and was not triggered manually by any student or staff member.

Electricians were brought in to the office to find the faulty fire sensor and repair it in the aftermath of the impromptu alarm and evacuation in the hopes no further incidents of this kind will take place.