Update: Prospect High School Evacuated

Updated: 5 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 23: Bay City News Service: Prospect High School in the Campbell Union High School District was briefly evacuated and a custodian was injured this afternoon after a musical instrument case caught fire and sent smoke billowing out of a storeroom, officials said.

The school, located at 18900 Prospect Rd. in Saratoga, sounded its fire alarm at about 1:15 p.m., emptied its buildings and waited for the Santa Clara County Fire Department to arrive, Campbell Union High School District spokesman Mike Posey said.

"The whole school was evacuated," Posey said.

The small blaze started in a saxophone case in a vacant room used to store the school's musical instruments, and ended up destroying the saxophone, Posey said.

Just before firefighters arrived, the school's custodian used a fire extinguisher on the small fire but was overcome by smoke and was taken to a hospital as a precaution, Posey said.

The fire department doused what was left of the fire and students were able to return to their classrooms, except the one next to storage room, by 2 p.m. The day ended as usual at 2:35 p.m., Posey said.

"It was a small incident and the Santa Clara County Fire Department responded very quickly," Posey said.

The school had recently run fire drills for students and faculty, and was able to react well to the fire, Posey said.

County Fire Battalion Chief Kendall Pearson said that firefighters needed only about 5 to 10 gallons of water to douse the blaze, which consisted of "minor flames and significant smoke" from the burning plastic material.

The department's fire investigator is working to determine how the fire started, Pearson said.

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Original story: 2:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 23: Bay City News Service: There were evacuations at Prospect High School in the Campbell Union High School District this afternoon because of a reported fire in a room on campus that turned out to be only smoke, authorities said.

Santa Clara County sheriff's Sgt. Kurtis Stenderup said a fire was reported in one of the rooms at the school, located at 18900 Prospect Road, at about 1:20 p.m.

He said some people were evacuated.

The Santa Clara County Fire Department arrived at the campus and found only smoke and no flames, a fire department employee said.

Something had overheated in the room and created smoke, she said.

No one was injured, and everyone at the school was accounted for, she said.

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