Fire alarm hastens crowd’s exit following chorus concert at New Kent High School

Tuesday night’s combined middle school/high school chorus concert at New Kent High School may have brought down the house, but a fire alarm served to clear out the house.

Shortly after 8 p.m. and just after the curtain came down on the concert inside the high school auditorium, the building’s fire alarm system activated, sounding an audible alarm and igniting strobe lights in every room and hallway throughout the school.

The crowd of more than 200 along with dozens of student performers promptly left the building in an orderly manner and without incident. Most headed for their vehicles in the parking lot, but others, mostly students, waited to welcome fire personnel.

Moments later, three fire engines and two other county fire department units arrived on scene. Fire Chief Rick Opett labeled the incident as a false alarm.

School administrators Todd Miller, the assistant principal at the middle school, and John Spiak, athletics director at the high school, speculated that a child touched off the alarm.

“That’s the rumor that’s going around,” said Miller concerning the cause.

Opett said fire department personnel quickly inspected the school and reset the alarm system. Spiak said the alarm system was triggered in the vestibule near the auditorium.

Spiak added, “When [fire personnel] reset the alarm, nothing [no other alarms] came on elsewhere in the building, so we’re good.”