Students evacuated after fire breaks out on roof of new construction at River Ridge

A fire broke out on the roof of the new construction at River Ridge High School that led to a partial evacuation on Monday morning.

Lacey Fire District 3 deputy chief Jennifer Schmidt said crews were dispatched at 10:57 a.m. Sept. 23 to what originally came in as a commercial fire at the high school. Some callers also stated some brush was on fire.

When crews arrived at 11:04 a.m. they found a construction crew had been actively working on the roof of a new building on campus. The crew had a lot of debris such as cardboard and pallets on the roof, and they were welding nearby Monday morning when the debris caught fire.

Schmidt said the new construction is a steel roof and the fire didn’t spread much, and nobody was in the building. She said four to six air conditioning units slated for the new building sustained significant fire damage.

She said students in nearby areas were evacuated and taken to the football field out of an abundance of caution. She said the area where the fire happened is a major project area, so not many people were around. The scene was cleared by 11:15 a.m.