801 Crockett Street, Shreveport, Louisiana 71101
318/ 673-6655 ● FAX: 318/ 673-6656 ● www.shreveportfire.org

Kelvin J. Cochran, Fire Chief

November 14, 2002

PRESS RELEASE
To: Newsroom
For Immediate Release
Contact: Brian A. Crawford, Public Information Officer
Phone: 673-6652, cell: 455-2609, page: 675-2137

Fire at Green Oaks High School

A fire at Green Oaks High School, 2550 Thomas E Howard Drive, forced the evacuate the entire school this morning around 10:40 a.m. . .

Fire officials said a spark inside of a large industrial vacuum, used in the schools wood shop, is to blame for a fire that produced a lot of smoke and tense moments as more than 600 students were led away from the school as firefighters arrived.

The spark was possibly taken in at a table saw work station and ignited some of the wood debris inside of the hose. The vacuum, where the fire itself was confined to, is housed on the outside of the building adjacent to the wood shop. Two large intake hoses go through a wall and fragment into several smaller vacuum lines that lead to each piece of mechanical wood cutting equipment in the room. Smoke was first noticed coming from a table saw’s in the schools wood shop classroom and in a matter of minutes the entire room was filled with smoke. Wood shop teacher Rudy Carley, 54, told fire officials that he was in the class along with nine students when he saw the smoke. Carley said that he tried to disconnect a vacuum connection from the table saw that appeared to be the source of the smoke but then noticed the smoke coming from everywhere.

When firefighters arrived they quickly extinguished a fire in the vacuum unit’s filter system and began removing the heavy smoke from the class with heavy exhaust fans. Firefighters were able to list the situation as under control at 11:03 a.m. Investigators said that the spark traveled through the vacuum’s intake system and then lodged in the machines filter system where it began to smolder and then turn to fire. ###