Fire fills Connellsville Area High School gym with smoke

Connellsville Area High School students never made it to class Wednesday morning after a small fire in the gymnasium mezzanine ignited wrestling mats and filled the room with smoke.

New Haven Hose Company firefighters used fire extinguishers to put out the fire around 7 a.m. and formulated a plan to get smoke out of the building, Assistant Chief Sam Spotto said.

Arriving students were directed to the middle school auditorium, Superintendent Dr. Joseph Bradley said. Students were not in the high school when the fire broke out and teachers were just arriving, he said.

With help from district employees, the high school students were dismissed for the day at approximately 10 a.m., Bradley said.

Bus riders were transported via their regular afternoon routes, parents were allowed to pick up their children and walkers were allowed to go home, he said.

High school students who spend full days at the Career & Technical Center attended classes as usual.

Bradley said he did not expect any change to the Thursday high school schedule.

He planned to request an emergency day off from the state Department of education.

The mezzanine area serves as the wrestling team practice area and the extent of damage has yet to be determined.

Spotto said the school maintenance staff originally believed a heating unit on the roof had malfunctioned.

He said firefighters were unable to determine the cause, although it might have involved a roof unit or a lighting fixture. A state police fire marshal will investigate the incident to determine cause and origin.

After the fire was out, efforts began to vent the smoke using fans and smoke ejectors.

In addition to New Haven, the Connellsville Township Volunteer Fire Department and Morrell Volunteer Fire Company responded, Spotto said.

Given the vast size of the gym and the amount of smoke, a specialized truck was called in from the Greensburg Volunteer Fire Department, he said. The smoke was mostly confined to the gym, although some leaked into hallways.

The Greensburg truck is equipped with a large fan used to pump fresh air into the building from one access point while smoke was pulled out from others, Spotto said.

He said the air was pushed in via an approximate 50-foot-long air sock. Spotto said it took about two hours to get all the smoke out of the building.

Once that was accomplished, firefighters reset the smoke alarm. No injuries were reported as a result of the incident.

Joe Abramowitz is a Daily Courier staff writer. He can be reached at [email protected]