Small fire sparks school evacuation
St. Matthew’s School in Kalispell was evacuated Thursday morning after smoke alarms went off due to an electrical fire.
Shortly after 11 a.m., smoke was discovered on the third floor of the school in a utility room, prompting the evacuation of students to Flathead High School plus a response from firefighters.
The room on the west side of the building contained a washer, dryer and computer network wiring.
Kalispell Fire Chief Dave Dedman said an overheated motor in the washing machine was the source of the fire.
Except for the washing machine, there was no damage to the building and no injuries were reported.
Electricity was restored and the building was deemed safe to enter at 11:51 a.m. With parental notification in full swing, St. Matthew’s administrators decided to cancel the rest of the school day.
St. Matthew’s Principal Joanna Eichner said the evacuation to the school’s emergency site, Flathead High School, went smoothly.
About 200 students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade and 30 staff members filed into the Flathead auditorium. Flathead staffers wheeled in carts of books for the children to read while they waited for their parents to be notified.
Eichner addressed students:
“You’re going to stay here at Flathead High until we hear from first responders that are at the building how things are going. Your parents are going to be called. Everyone is safe, everybody is here, no one is in our building except firefighters.”
Flathead High School Principal Peter Fusaro gave a rundown of how the high school could help.
“We have the auditorium for you, it can accommodate 700. We’ll make office phones available. The lunch ladies can probably put something together for the kids to eat [and] we’ll set up a sign-out table,” he told Eichner.
Word spread quickly about St. Matthew’s situation.
Eichner said Flathead High School students in early childhood education classes came down to help with the younger children. Staffers from the Nurturing Center brought over toys for them to play with and Glacier High School brought over lunch for the students.
“It was great to see how quickly the community came out to help us,” Eichner said.
St. Matthew’s substitute teacher Rhonda Hawkins was in the library when she first noticed the smell of smoke. She went down to science teacher Myrna Matulevich’s room to see if the smell may have been from Bunsen burners.
When that wasn’t the case, Hawkins and Matulevich returned to the library and traced the smell to the utility room.
“I opened the door and the room was full of smoke. It smelled electrical,” Matulevich said.
The teachers promptly unplugged the washer and dryer and didn’t see any flames, but there was enough smoke to set off fire alarms.
Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or by email at hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.