Smoke Reported Wednesday inside Royston Elementary School

BY MJ Kneiser, WLRH

Students are back in class today at Royston Elementary School after a report of smoke caused the school to be evacuated Wednesday.

Royston Fire Chief Ryan Parks said they got the call around 10:30 Wednesday morning.

“Smoke was reported in the teacher’s break room,” he said. “We searched the area in the teacher’s lounge and found no flames or hot spots. We went on the roof and checked the HVAC unit and found smoke inside the unit. There was no flames inside. The smoke was confined to that unit. We shut the power off to that unit.  And everyone was able to return to the building,” Parks said.

There had been reports of several employees suffering from smoke inhalation, but Parks said only one employee had complained of coughing from the smoke.

That person was treated on the scene and was released.

Students were evacuated to another school building until it was deemed safe to return.

Franklin County School Superintendent Chris Forrer said no students were injured due to the smoke.

“Every student is safe. It was handled very effectively. The students were evacuated to another building. We’ve had the proper authorities come in and vet and we have the all clear so we’re returning back to normal,” Forrer said. “Our HVAC technician is enroute right now to come look at it. Once he certifies that’s it in operational status, we’ll turn it back on.”

After the Fire Department gave the all clear students returned to class.