Dear friends and families of Yujin Gakuen,
I have a brief message about an incident that happened today after lunch. We anticipate that some students might tell their families that there was a lot of smoke at school and they might also inform you that the fire alarm was triggered. At 10:25, we held a fire drill. Things went smoothly, nothing unexpected. This was pre-planned and had nothing to do with the incident that happened later, after lunch. I’m writing in order to avoid confusion about the two events/incidents.
At approximately 12:08, during the 2nd and 3rd grade recess, there was a lot of smoke that came onto the playground from a neighboring home. The smoke covered much of the playground, and we blew the whistle to bring students inside. At that moment, the amount of smoke was concerning; however, by the time they lined up, the smoke had cleared and the wind was blowing it away from the field.
One of our staff called 911 to report the excessive smoke, which appeared to be coming from one of our neighbor’s homes. Initially, there was a large volume coming from that direction, but most of that smoke dissipated and it appeared that it was coming out of a chimney nearby.
I walked down to the street to the south of the school to check on it, and I could see smoke coming out of a chimney in one of the houses. Firefighters arrived soon after. There was no apparent damage to the home.
At school, the smoke had entered the main building, and we had some students who came to the health room complaining of smoke inhalation, nothing more than that.
If you have any questions about the events that transpired today, please feel free to call me at the number below. Thank you for supporting Yujin Gakuen, and have a good, and safe, afternoon.
Yours sincerely,
Thomas Masaru Piowaty
Principal, Kocho Sensei
Yujin Gakuen Japanese Immersion Elementary
Eugene School District 4J
piowaty_t@4j.lane.edu | 541.790.4640
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