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A fire alarm went off at West Chicago Community High School at approximately 11:48 a.m. and again at 12:02 p.m. on April 30, the day of the prom pep assembly, during an early dismissal schedule.
According to Executive Director of Operations and Safety David Pater, the fire alarm pull station near the small gym malfunctioned, causing both alarms.
Firefighters arrived at the scene quickly, driving through the bus lane near door 1 to enter the building.
“This is very inconvenient for my learning and studying for the AP Chem test,” junior Cole Garling said.
After resetting the alarm system at approximately 11:58 a.m., administrators allowed students to reenter the building. Just as students were released back into the building to attend their classes, the fire alarm rang once again at 12:02 p.m.
“We just went back in from the first fire alarm, and now we just came [back] out, not even two minutes later,” senior Nick Jimenez said.
Despite previous fire alarms at WEGO, students and staff were shocked to have two alarms back-to-back.
“It’s very concerning, but we will get to the bottom of it,” Alexandria Parker, biology teacher at WEGO, said.
Pater confirmed that the issue was caused by the same malfunctioning pull station.
“That pull station is being replaced, and we should be in proper working order very soon,” Pater said via email sent out to staff and, later, the Chronicle.
Students were in seventh and eighth period when this incident occurred, nearing the end of the school day and the pep assembly for prom week.
“We have an assembly day, we want to get through the day, try to enjoy the festivities at the end of the day, and the festivities tomorrow,” Dean’s Assistant Dorian Carrasco said. “So this just kind of puts a little stop to it, but again, just a little bump in the road. We’ll get over it, we’ll come back, we’ll get back to normal, and we’ll enjoy the rest of the day.”
At 12:36 p.m., administrators sent an email to students and families confirming that the alarms were caused by a malfunctioning pull station and that a technician had been called to fix the issue.
Correction
April 30, 2026
A previous version of this article misspelled Dorian Carrasco’s last name and incorrectly listed the time of the alarm reset as p.m. instead of a.m. These errors have been corrected.