Paullina, Iowa — The Paullina Fire Department had a busy Christmas weekend. After extinguishing a large fire with the help of several departments early on Christmas Eve Day, they were called to check on a fire alarm at the school on Christmas night.
Fire Chief Ryan Harper tells us they were paged out to 216 South Rutledge Street — the South O’Brien Junior High & High School in Paullina — a few minutes before 6:00 p.m. on Christmas for a building fire alarm.
However, when they got there, he says they found no active fire, but they did find steam or smoke filling the weight room inside the school. Firefighters entered the building and found that there had been some type of malfunction with the hot water radiator heating system and it had filled the room with steam.
Harper says the boiler for the heating system was then shut down and that stopped any more movement of water. Firefighters then inspected the entire rest of the building to make sure there were no other areas in the building where there were also malfunctions.
He tells us that at approximately 7:20 pm the building was turned back over to school maintenance staff for repairs to begin. The only damage was the single pipe to be repaired and some water to mop up. Firefighters were on-scene for nearly two hours. The Granville Fire Department and the Sutherland Police Department also assisted.
