As the fire alarm rings, students file out of their classrooms and head for their designated meeting locations. Amongst those students, many take out their phones and snapchat about Irvington’s ringtone, considering the frequency and the reasons for  these occurrences.

Irvington has been experiencing these constant fire drills since the return of winter break, yet out of these three drills, only one fire truck arrived. The excessive fire drills are not because of repeated fires, but simply because of the fire alarms’ sensitivity. The sensitive system has been set off because of lint, spiders, and even careless mistakes by students.

“Some of the most recent fire alarms were caused because of the smallest of things, but many times the alarm is set off as it is supposed to,” school secretary Ms. Gill said. “For example, Valhalla’s fog machine accumulated to cause the fire alarm to go off and another time it was  burnt popcorn in a classroom.”

These fire alarms do not require the arrival of a fire truck, because administration becomes aware of the cause immediately and finds it unnecessary.

“Officer Lavano or an Assistant Principal will be directed to the fire alarm which caused the drill and inspect the location,” Ms. Gill said. “After doing so, he or she will communicate the issue and update the office on what is happening. If necessary the fire department will be called up.”

Mrs. Barrious reached out to Dr. Morris for the financial background of this situation, but they came to the conclusion that the information is invalid to everybody but the government. A question frequently asked by the parents and students is, “Why do we not receive a notification update email anymore by the school staff?”

“Since the fire alarms aren’t usually caused by the most simplest thing such as burnt popcorn, tea mist, or a bug crawling in the system,” Mrs. Barrious said, “there’s no need to alert people. Also, since the alarms only last ten to fifteen minutes, there’s no point of an email being sent out. Of course, if there’s a real fire, everybody will be notified.”