Fire forces evacuation of Santa Rosa High School

A smoldering fire in a bathroom wall forced the evacuation of Santa Rosa High School on Thursday afternoon.

The fire in the boys bathroom of the De Soto building, reported about 2:20 p.m., was quickly extinguished by firefighters, but it led to about 2,000 students having to exit their classrooms for about half an hour, until it was judged safe to return.

“A kid had a cigarette and stuck it into a little hole in the bathroom wall,” said Victoria Carpenter, an English and ArtQuest teacher whose classroom is in the building. “It was smoldering in the wall. There was a little bit of smoke.”

Firefighters removed the smoking wall insulation and quickly put out the fire.

Santa Rosa Fire officials said the circumstances indicated the fire was not deliberate.

“There was no fresh debris to indicate someone created the hole for putting the cigarette in the wall,” said Battalion Chief Jack Piccinini. “I’m guessing the kid just smoked in the bathroom and that’s where he deposited the cigarette.”

Principal Brad Coscarelli said school officials will be reviewing footage from a security camera to see who was coming and going from the bathroom around the time of the fire.

“We will take a look and see what we can pick up,” he said. “Hopefully we can come up with a few students we can talk to tomorrow morning.”