Electrical room fire closes LCA

By Ray Reed

Published: September 15, 2008

About 1,700 students at Lynchburg Christian Academy were expected to resume classes today after a fire in an electrical room ended their school day Monday morning and sent pupils and teachers home early.

The fire was minor, said Lynchburg Fire Marshal Greg Wormser, and evacuation from LCA classrooms “happened as smoothly as it can happen in these situations.” There were no injuries.

Telephone, e-mail and Internet connections went down because of the fire for about four hours at Liberty University and Thomas Road Baptist Church, which also occupy the complex near Candlers Mountain Road.

“It was a little bit of an inconvenience for about four or five hours,” said Barry N. Moore, vice president of university relations.

Todd Campo, LCA superintendent, said, “We cleared the building in a minute and 52 seconds. The kids were just great.” Two fire drills, held earlier this school term, were factors, Campo said.

The students walked to Liberty University’s LaHaye Student Center and were sent home from there.

“LCA had a quality emergency plan,” Wormser said.

The disruption occurred when a large computer-system battery, called an uninterruptible power supply, overheated.

A teacher with a class on the playground smelled an unusual odor, saw smoke coming from the electrical room’s roof vents, and checked the room’s door, Campo said.

Smoke was coming around the door and into the hallway, and the teacher pulled a fire-alarm switch, Campo said.

Electrical systems throughout the building were shut down as a precaution, Wormser said.

“The fire was found and easily extinguished within 10 minutes of our arrival,” Wormser said. “Most of what we had to do was clean up,” he said, using fans to clear smoke out of the building.

Campo said air-testing equipment, available at Liberty University, was used to check on air quality Monday afternoon.

“We did an air quality check and everything was satisfactory,” Campo said.

“We’re back up and running.”