ROY, Utah, Dec. 15, 2016 (Gephardt Daily) — A pre-dawn electrical fire struck Sand Ridge Jr. High School, closing it for the day, and a second electrical fire hit nearby Roy High School after school was in session.
No one was hurt in either fire, and classes at Roy High continued in areas excluding the shop.
The first fire, at Sand Ridge, 2075 W. 4600 South, was detected at about 5 a.m. when a janitor arrived at the school and found it filled with smoke. He pulled the wall-mounted alarm, and fire officials arrived shortly afterward to fight a minor fire in the electrical system.
The fire was in the equipment that controls ventilation for the building, so lung-irritating smoke was spread to every corner of the school. A HazMat company will use fans to thoroughly air out the building.
Sand Ridge is closed for the day. Lane Findlay, spokesman for the Weber School District, said school will mostly likely be open for classes again on Friday.
The Weber School District send automated texts just before 7 a.m. to alert Sand Ridge Jr. High’s 828 students that school was closed. Any who did not get the alert were informed by a small group of students in the parking lot or by officials standing at the front of the school.
The fire at Roy High School, at 2150 W. Â 4800 South, just up a small hill south of Sand Ridge, was reported at after school had begun, at about 9 a.m. District officials said it was also an electrical fire in the ventilation system, and occurred in the ceiling over the shop classroom when students were welding.
The Roy Fire Department arrived and quickly extinguished the flames. Students were able to return to their classrooms, except for the shop room.
Findlay said the fires in the two neighboring schools were unrelated.
