Sprinkler Burst Fire Drill Begs the Question: Does Canyon Hills Infrastructure Still Hold Up?

Ben Ruiz-Rodriguez, Features Editor|October 27, 2022

Canyon Hills High School fire drill caused by sprinkler pipe build up asks us the question, Is Canyon Hills infrastructure up to date? Witness Hunter George told us his experience.

“I was in the back helping a kid get their stuff, I look over and I just see a bunch of water just like coming out of nowhere and it (roof) just started collapsing,” George Said. George added on “ I was kinda scared so we were like trying to move all the backpacks and stuff , you know it was a very scary moment, we lost our teacher and we had to lead them (students) out, so it was just us kids going out to the football field, without a teacher.”

Canyon Hills High School pipe burst causing flooding
A classroom in the 400-building was left flooded after a sprinkler pipe sets off mid-class due to pipe build up.
(Ben Ruiz-Rodriguez)

Why did this happen? Canyon Hills was built back in 1976 and since 46 years have gone by, George believes that not everything on campus may not be up to date as what the district wants.

“I feel like they (safety measures) could be way better for all schools in general, they don’t spend enough money on the right things like football teams and stuff, you need actual stuff that will help the school,” George stated. 

These types of incidents are unexpected and are some of the more expensive costs the school has to pay, but not only some of the most costly, it’s also a hassle to clean up after.

“It’s a struggle , especially with all of them , to be able to clean up and make sure there are no other accidents in the other rooms,” said Building Site Supervisor Carlos Gaines. “It’s a lengthy process to clean these rooms especially with the carpet and the roof damage,”.

This incident isn’t only an issue for Canyon Hills as many other schools have gone to show, this isn’t a very rare thing. Besides, how can you keep track of them all?

Assistant Principal Nicholas Willis thinks “ All schools in general struggle to keep up with these kinds of problems – it’s impossible to fix them right away due to the budgeting and when they (construction) actually come to fix it ,”.

With each year going by slowly causing campus to age more and more, Willis said “ We are trying our hardest to fix and prevent these accidents from happening and so we hope you’re just patient with us,” on what the office is currently in the process of after this incident happened and what they plan to do in the future.