Fire scare at Willow Elementary




Heavy rains following a long dry spell can trigger fire alarms, cause wires to spark and heaters that have been off to malfunction when they kick on—and that means a visit by firefighters.

The latter was the case Dec. 13 at Willow Elementary School in Agoura Hills.

A heater that had been idle for some time clicked on during heavy rains and gusty winds, triggering a fire alarm and an evacuation.

Reports of a fire at the Laro Drive campus went out just before 9 a.m.

Los Angeles County Fire Department units responded.

School Principal Tiffanee Reynolds told The Acorn a heater turned on “and had a little bit of a smell to it” that ended up tripping the fire alarm.

“We all evacuated safely and the fire department came and cleared it and allowed us to go back in,” the principal said.

All responding fire units were back in service within about 40 minutes.

“They determined that it was a fan motor on the HVAC system that hadn’t turned on in a while,” Reynolds said. “There was no actual fire, flames or anything like that.”