School president praises firefighters’ quick response
Tallulah Falls School President and Head of School Larry Peevy says he’s thankful that a weekend fire scare at the school wasn’t any worse than it was.
Firefighters responded to the private school campus around 5:30 a.m. Sunday after a smoke alarm went off inside the school’s student center.
“Our Security discovered smoke in the student center and it set off a smoke alarm,” Peevy says. “We had response immediately from Tallulah Falls and Habersham County Fire Departments. They did an excellent job of securing the building and checking it out carefully.”
Animal in HVAC unit may be to blame
During their investigation, fire officials discovered a cracked heat exchanger in one of the HVAC units outside the student center. “That caused a small fire in the unit itself and caused it to smoke up the building,” Peevy says. He says the unit may have been damaged by an animal. At least one HVAC unit will have to be replaced, but that won’t interfere with student activities. TFS students are on break for another week. A reserve unit is being used to heat the building.
The student center was not damaged.
“We’re very, very fortunate,” Peevy says. He gives credit to the fire departments for keeping the situation under control. “I was so pleased. Even by the time I got there at least one fire department was already there. The Tallulah Falls Fire Department was pulling up. The response could not have been better and they could not have been nicer to deal with.”
Emergency personnel remained on the scene for about an hour. Peevy says the school should have an estimate on the cost of repairs by Tuesday.
