This school year alone, there have been more than 30 calls to the Danbury Fire Department from Danbury High School.

According to fire chief T.J. Wiedel, the calls have ranged from elevator rescues to motor vehicle issues to gas leaks to lockouts and even smoke scares because of steam leaks.

This is not to mention the number of fire alarms the school had in the months of November, December, January and February. The latest alarm came just this past Thursday, Feb. 4, when firefighters again had to to respond only to be cleared minutes after arriving.

The school’s 50-year-old infrastructure has been having trouble all year long. The City of Danbury owns the building and is responsible for its upkeep. But getting the city to quickly fix leaky steam pipes and alarms in a timely manner has been just as frustrating at the alarms themselves.

On top of the once-a-month planned fire drills to meet state law, there have been many malfunctions either at the beginning of the school day, or at the end, usually around period 8. Some alarms have even gone off after dismissal, interrupting athletics.

This has been disrupting student’s learning and many teachers and students have found the fire alarms irritating. Junior Allison Boylan says, “I think the malfunctions are annoying, just because it always happens at my most inconvenient time, during my favorite class.”

Principal Gary Bocaccio has also found these drills annoying and disruptive. He says, “It is an interruption of our school day, it is a loss of instructional time. It’s very inconvenient and unhealthy that we are going outside for periods of time in the freezing cold.”

These drills can be blamed on a faulty and old alarm system that continues to go off inside the gym. Wiedel says DHS will be getting a new alarm system this summer.

Custodian Billie Anderson says, “The fire system is very old and they plan on upgrading it with the new addition starting this June after graduation.”

Jim Russell, city fire marshal, explained the issue with the alarm system. He said that there has been a problem with a circuit and detector in the gym.

Many students and teachers hoped this problem would be fixed upon return from the holiday break, but the alarms keep sounding. One day in January, the alarm went off before school even started. Faculty and staff here early to prepare for the day had to exit while students were told to stay on their buses until firefighters could make the all-clear call.

Sophomore Sarah Bradsell says regarding the fire alarms, “I think the school should make more of an effort to fix them.”

Ben Summerhays, junior, agreed. Although he said he doesn’t mind the alarms if it means getting out of class, there are other issues that come into play.

“They should update the system because it does cost the fire department a lot of money to come down here and it’s risking potential lives, taking them away from real fire calls and accident calls,” Summerhays said.

Tom Agnes, who teaches social studies courses, said when it comes to fire alarm pulls, the administration has a good record of tracking down the students and is smart about telling the student body of the punishments.

“As for the malfunctions, it’s expensive and disruptive,” Agnes continued. “I feel confident that they’re trying to find a cause for these to stop them from happening. It’s extremely disruptive to classes going on, it takes a lot of time away. It’s also really cold outside sometimes! It’s tough for the students who aren’t wearing warm clothes and I’ve had to let a student borrow my coat one time because all they were wearing was a cotton shirt.”

On top of the fire alarms and leaky pipes, there had been issues with the auto shop not having heat and having to deal with a sewer backup.  Bocaccio said these issues had been fixed by the second week of January.  

Anderson said he hopes the $60 million expansion project will help to improve many of these infrastructure issues, including the alarms and new pipes. On C-3 alone this year, pipes have leaked in the hallway near the men’s bathroom and in the workroom, near the copier, for several weeks before the city repaired them. Anderson had to place garbage cans under the leaks to collect the water.

Bocaccio said he hopes the city will have the malfunction problem resolved soon.

“I can’t make any promises,” he said. “I can’t foresee the future, but I certainly hope to see fewer.”

Editor’s note: Natalie Ceciliano and Katie Clark contributed to this article.