Students have been sent back to their fifth period classes after a fire alarm disrupted class at approximately 12:33 p.m. today at Palo Alto High School.

Students will miss 20 to 25 minutes of class due to the alarm.

The administration believes the fire alarm went off because of construction work.

“We have a contractor doing work on the alarms,” assistant principal Jerry Berkson said. “While none of the work that he is doing should have set off the alarm, it is possible that the alarm was tripped during the contractor’s work.”

The Palo Alto Fire Department did not report to Paly once the fire alarm went off, according to Rich Dean, the Acting Deputy Chief of the fire department.

Dean agrees that the fire alarm was probably due to work on construction.

“I suspect it [the fire alarm] may have been related to alarm testing, possibly [due to] the new construction,” Dean said.

The exact cause of the fire alarm has still not been established.

“We are gathering more information,” principal Phil Winston said.

Students walk to the field as part of the evacuation procedure.
Photo by: Juliana Moraes-Liu

More information to come.