By Shelley Smithssmith@salisburypost.com
Students and faculty of J.C. Carson High School were evacuated into the rain Friday morning after smoke from the school’s boiler room caused the fire alarm to go off.
According to principal Henry Kluttz, a rubber coupling over the electric motor of the heating and air conditioning unit got too hot, deteriorated, and caused heavy smoke to escape from the boiler room.
“The smoke alarm went off, followed by the fire alarm,” said Kluttz. “If anything positive came of this, we now know that our smoke alarms work.”
Kluttz said students were evacuated and out of class for 15-20 minutes.
“We had to identify the problem,” said Kluttz, who said the China Grove Fire Department and a mechanic for Rowan-Salisbury Schools arrived shortly after the alarms sounded.
Although the saying goes, “Where there’s smoke there’s fire,” there were never any flames, and the problem was fixed by the end of the school day.