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Chalkdust

Fire at town middle school causes stir, no evacuation

Several trucks responded to a fire at the middle school

Some students over at Christiansburg Middle School might still be hoping they'll get out of school today after a small fire broke out on the second floor.

Little chance of that.  The fire, which occurred in a teacher's lounge, has been out for a couple of hours, although investigators still are looking into it.  At least three fire trucks, two Christiansburg police officers and the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office responded the incident this morning.

Originally, Superintendent Tiffany Anderson sent an e-mail to parents and staff saying that the school had been evacuated. It was not.

Shortly after 11 a.m., after the firefighters said the fire had been extinguished, a few classrooms worth of students waited around the staircase closest to the school's entrance as firefighters descended from the scene. Teachers and students both had questions about what happened, and some teachers suggested this was not the first time a fire had broken out.

In an e-mail to the school system's listserve after noon,  Anderson said, "There was a small fire that was immediately extinguished by a staff member in a teacher conference room today.  Students on the second floor in the wing closest to the conference room were evacuated from their classrooms although the fire had already been extinguished."

Anderson's e-mail said she was still getting details about the incident.  We're still waiting for those, too. As would be expected, Principal Ryan Hitchman was busy after the blaze, presumably talking with the sheriff's department and Nelson Simpkins, the school system's director of secondary education.

Simpkins arrived at the school about 10 minutes after 11 a.m. today.

Keep checking back, and we'll update with what we have learned.

1 Comment »

  1. [...] male student at Christiansburg Middle School was charged with threats to burn a building after a small fire at the school on [...]

    Pingback by Student charged in middle-school fire | Chalk Dust — November 20, 2008 @ 2:33 pm

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About this blog

Anna Mallory

Welcome to Chalk Dust! This is your community aimed at exploring education in the New River Valley. I'm Anna Mallory. I went to public schools in West Virginia and now I cover PreK-12 education for the Roanoke Times.
I read way too many reports about improving schools and can speak in entire sentences using educational acronyms. I'll be letting you know about issues and events affecting your children, schools and tax dollars, but, more importantly, I want to know what you think. Let me know your opinions about issues in the boardroom, classroom and beyond.

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