A small ember sparked a major problem in a renovation project at the Meredosia-Chambersburg School early Tuesday morning.
Superintendent Thad Walker believes a small ember from a construction project landed in some insulation causing smoke to start filling up the school just after 4AM: “We just had some smoldering insulation where we are having some work done putting the new storefront in. One of the sparks got into the insulation, we believe, and just kind of didn’t really burn but smoldered and caused some smoke. Then, the fire alarms went off and the fire department came and soaked everything down. We are in the process of getting it cleaned up and starting over.”
Walker says the “storefront” is original to the building: “The whole building that was built in 1957, which we figured out today is all metal, with the windows at the top and it has panels at the bottom. That is kind of the way the structure was built. They call it a ‘storefront.’ That is the name of the grading that they put in. They are just basically replacing the 1957 windows and the panels with current, up-to-date, more energy efficient glass; which is better than the single-paned glass. It goes around the whole end of the school, down through the Math and Band room, Industrial Arts-Ag part into the back side of the building on the west side.”
Walker says the clean up of the incident has already been completed as of Tuesday afternoon, and the construction crew is set to get everything underway once again today.