Fire a good learning opportunity

Frontiersman editorial board

Parents who showed up at Tanaina Elementary School on the last school day before Christmas break found themselves at a scene which could have come from an action movie, or from their own worst nightmares. Instead of finding students lining up at school buses, they found police cars, an Alaska State Trooper helicopter and fire trucks.

The Mat-Su Valley's largest elementary school, with more than 400 students, had to be evacuated when a small fire ignited in an impromptu storage room.

The good news is that the school's staff and mechanical equipment seemed to work exactly as they should -- quickly and effectively -- and no one was injured.

Mat-Su Borough Public Safety Director Kevin Koechlein said it appeared the fire was properly detected and contained by the building's sprinkler system. Even as the flames were being extinguished, students were safely ushered from the school while staff members directed traffic. The children were eventually taken to Wasilla Middle School, where parents could pick them up as long as they had proper identification. District spokeswoman Kim Floyd said emergency-preparedness training for all district staff this past year has paid off, and the Tanaina incident is proof of that.

This isn't to say there is no room for improvement. The Tanaina fire, with its generally positive outcome, provides a perfect opportunity for the Mat-Su Borough School District to analyze what worked and what didn't. Understandably, many parents were distraught, and when they were unable to immediately locate their children, their panic was only spurred. Especially in light of the Sept. 11 tragedies and continued safety alerts around the nation, Americans have come to fear the worst.

Perhaps the lesson district administration can take away from the event is that sprinkler systems and incident command plans will help to keep the children safe, but they won't necessarily be enough to immediately put parents at ease. The district now has the chance to evaluate its communication system so that in the event of a future emergency, parents can be comforted rather than frightened by efforts to keep their children safe.

At the same time, those of us in the media and community must remember that in the event of an emergency the top priority of the school and public safety officials must be to keep students out of harm's way. Along the way, a few backpacks might be displaced or mittens lost, but these are minor inconveniences when compared to the "worst nightmare" scenario.