PHOTO PROVIDED Keystone Central School District Board of Directors hosted staff, students and first responders who were instrumental in ensuring the safety of everyone at Central Mountain High School on Feb. 26 when a fire in a CTC classroom led to the evacuation of the building.

MILL HALL — When a smoldering ash in the ventilation system of a Career and Technical Center classroom sparked a blaze on Feb. 26, staff at Central Mountain High School along with first responders and even students stepped up in a big way to ensure everyone’s safety.

With this in mind, the Keystone Central School District Board of Directors invited those who played hand in that day to attend its voting session on Thursday night where Principal Nick Verrelli thanked them for their service to the students.

Before launching into his thanks, Verrelli asked first responders, police, teachers, paraprofessionals, nurses and more to join him and students who had created a banner with the words “Thanks for Jumping In.” The banner also featured a list of groups being thanked for their work that day.

Verrelli marveled at the number of individuals who joined him.

“What is even more amazing than that is what happened that day,” he said. “It was amazing to see how everybody came together — our community, our teachers, our staff, our students. Everybody did it and they did it perfectly.”

Verrelli said the day of the emergency, students and staff were able to be evacuated and accounted for in eight minutes.

“You may say to yourself ‘that seems like a long time.’ I’m not talking about getting everybody out of the building in eight minutes. I’m talking we had every single person, student and staff, out of the building and accounted for. That is an amazing feat,” he said.

He also commended the speed in which first responders made it to the school.

“Right away we had emergency personnel there within minutes. We had firefighters, local police, the sheriff’s department, the state department,” he said.

Once it was established the students would be dismissed for the day so staff could review the effects smoke had on the facility, Verrelli said students were brought back inside to await for buses and rides home.

“We had some kids who were a little anxious with what was going on and we had teachers stepping up,” he said.

He used Justin Bower as an example, who didn’t have students due that day, who went to multiple classrooms — including the special education classrooms and autistic support — to check on students.

He also thanked Mike Bower and Jeff Williams for taking command of both sections in the auditorium, where students were also held while waiting for buses.

He went on to thank Security Officer David VanGorder for “absolutely being my right hand.”

“There’s no possible way I’d be able to do this without him. He was there, he was organizing everything with emergency personnel — who I want to thank for your unbelievable reaction time,” he said.

Next on Verrelli’s list of thank yous was for CTE Instructors Ryan Broughton and Bill Probst who donned fire gear and utilized their emergency responder training to keep the fire under control until emergency personnel arrived.

“They jumped into action, jumping in and putting out the fire right away,” he said.

Verrelli also thanked the transportation staff for their quick turn around in supplying buses to get the kids home.

He then handed the mic to Childcare Instructor Ashley Brungard, who spoke about the amazing work her students did in taking care of the 20 preschoolers who were on site that day.

“By the time I realized the fire alarm was going off… I turned around to my students who already had the preschoolers in their arms, lined up at the door and ready to go out,” she said.

She went on to thank multiple students who kept the kiddos occupied and ensured they weren’t scared. They went a step further, she said, and contacted parents to professionally explain the situation and helped in student pick up.

“I cannot say enough about my students. They’re amazing everyday. But that day they were truly amazing and stepped up,” she said.

In closing, Verrelli reflected on the collaboration between Central Mountain High School and the community.

“It was an unbelievably beautiful thing to see,” he said.

Superintendent Dr. Francis Redmon also commended the staff for their work, noting he was away from the district on vacation when he was contacted about the fire.

“I was terrified when I got the first call from Officer VanGorder. I quickly realized I have an amazing group of professionals that just did the work. I want to thank you all for keeping the kids safe, for keeping your eye on what was important, for being the professionals you are,” he said.