Suspicious odor leads to FMS, FIS temporary evacuations
A suspicious smell led to an evacuation of both Farragut Middle and Farragut Intermediate schools Friday, April 21.
“After a report of a suspicious odor in our cafeteria, Rural Metro advised us to temporarily evacuate the building,” stated a mid-morning e-mail from FMS. “KCS maintenance, Rural Metro both cleared the building.”
Farragut Intermediate School principal Suzanne Parham also elected to evacuate the adjacent school. “There is a suspicious odor at our neighboring school,” she explained to parents in an e-mail. “Out of an abundance of caution, I am evacuating our building.”
Town Mayor Ron Williams was notified of the situation as it unfolded.
“Rural Metro (and) police are over at Farragut Middle and Intermediate — some students thought they smelled gas; they evacuated them out,” he said. “School maintenance is there checking it out to see if that’s the case.
“We told them if they need help directing traffic or anything else, to let us know,” he added. “We will scramble public works (employees) over there to give them a hand. All our public works employees are trained first responders.
“If they would have had to evacuate (the area), then (Public Works) would have been called out.”
KUB achecked out the building before clearing it for re-entry. All students had returned to class by noon, Friday.
What first was believed to be a slight gas emission turned out to be a false alarm, Williams said Monday, April 24.
