Computer lab catches fire at Modesto’s Johansen High School

A fire in the second-floor student computer lab at Johansen High School on Thursday morning caused an estimated $500,000 in damage to the structure and computer equipment, the Modesto Fire Department said.

Because summer school instructors and students took computer glitches as a warning sign, they were able to evacuate before fire broke out. Damage to the school building means the remainder of summer school will be held at Enochs High School, about 4 miles to the north.

During classes, “things weren’t working as they should” with the computers, said Principal Nathan Schar, so custodians were called.

As a precaution, the custodians had teachers and students leave the building, said John Liukkonen, senior director of maintenance and operations for Modesto City Schools.

They next called for electricians, and two came over from Downey High. The electricians began to look over the two rooms that were in use, 207 and 210, and smelled smoke.

Both rooms have doors leading into the computer lab, Room 206, which was not in use Thursday morning. When one electrician opened a lab door from the room he was in, he was hit by thick smoke, Liukkonen said. “They started to get an extinguisher but quickly realized the fire was more than an extinguisher could handle and it required a 911 call,” he said. One of the electricians said he saw through the smoke that the teacher’s desk was on fire, Liukkonen said.

Modesto Fire Department spokeswoman Jessica Smart said the fire call was made a little before 10 a.m. It quickly became a three-alarm call, and 13 units from Modesto Fire and the Stanislaus Consolidated Fire Protection District responded. Two divisions – one on each floor of the building – tackled the firefighting, Smart said. Two trucks had ladders extended to the roof of the building.

At about 11 a.m., Modesto Fire Chief Sean Slamon briefed school and district employees that the fire had been extinguished and that crews were focusing on ventilating the building and making sure hot spots were out. Fans were being used to force smoke out, and Slamon said that a couple of windows that were painted shut would have to be forced open.

He confirmed that students and school staff members were OK and that no firefighters were injured.

The fire’s origin appears to be electrical, Slamon said. There was heavy damage to the computer lab – “all the computers are destroyed” – and smoke and water damage in several other rooms, he said.

Smart later added that investigators believe the fire started under the teacher’s desk, where there are several power strips. But she noted that everything was badly melted, making it difficult to pinpoint an exact origin.

Modesto City Schools informed families through an autocall that the district will bus Johansen summer school students to Enochs for the remainder of the program. Morning-session students will be picked up at Johansen’s bus roundabout at 7:30 a.m. and returned to Johansen at 11:45 a.m. Afternoon-session students will be picked up at Johansen’s bus roundabout at 11:45 a.m. and returned to the school at 3:35 p.m.

District maintenance workers are talking with restoration companies about the work that will need to be done on the building, Schar said. “We figure we have about 45 days,” he said. “We’ll get it all good before school starts.”

This story was originally published June 18, 2015 at 10:17 AM with the headline "Computer lab catches fire at Modesto’s Johansen High School."