THE FIRE ALARM STARTED SOUNDING TUESDAY AFTERNOON in the Burlington (Iowa) High School.  It was not a scheduled fire drill, so the evacuation which went exactly as planned, had a sense of urgency to it.

Burlington High School

The Burlington FD arrived on the scene exactly six minutes later and found the entire student body outside standing in the rain and getting wet in 45-degree weather.  But they continued to get wetter as the firefighters, starting from the alarm zone, narrowed down the search to the teacher’s restroom.  As they first opened the door, they found a light haze in the room and the odor of potpourri.  Obviously somebody had tried to cover up another smell with an aerosol spray disinfectant which triggered the smoke alarm.

The students were then allowed back into the school while the FF’s spent the next 18 minutes clearing the new smell out of that area of the school.

The Burlington Hawk Eye has the STORY.