On Tuesday evening, a false fire alarm had an English as a Second Language (ESL) class evacuating the auditorium they were meeting in at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Peachtree City. Anyone in the area may have seen fire trucks responding on scene. 

According to Deputy Fire Chief Wil Hardin, “Our crews responded to an automatic fire alarm at Holy Trinity. They found a malfunctioning riser in the sprinkler room. There was no fire, no smoke, no hazard. The alarm was triggered by a water flow from the malfunctioning sprinkler riser.”

Perhaps it was the power of suggestion in hearing the alarms, but the members of the ESL class thought they smelled smoke as they left the building. They saw water flowing out the back door of the church. 

ESL Teacher Jane White-Stevens said, “We were sitting there in a large auditorium near the front door when we heard the fire alarm. We exited leaving all our stuff. We thought we smelled something like burnt wires, so we though there was a real fire.”

Jane White-Stevens had a class of seven ESL students. She told The Citizen that there was a La Leche League meeting in another part of the campus that didn’t hear the alarm. She was happy to hear that the fire scare was not serious, and only disappointed that her students missed half their class. “I’m glad there’s no damage. Praise God,” she concluded.