School staff members extinguished a fire smoldering at Los Altos High School last week after a football coach spotted smoke coming from the girl's locker room during the team's after-school practice.
Vice Principal Louis Tolbert and custodian Jose Hernandez were the first to locate the Aug. 30 fire, which had been smoldering above the ceiling of the girl's locker room for about three hours, according to school officials. Tolbert said the fire had already burned a hole in the wall above one of the locker-room doors. Tolbert said he and Hernandez didn't know if the fire was electrical, but made a conscious decision to put out the flames shortly before firefighters arrived at about 6 p.m.
"The fire was starting to spread, and we didn't want to wait for more of the building to burn. There just happened to be a (garden) hose there ... In retrospect, I think we made the right decision," Tolbert said.
A spokeswoman for the Santa Clara County Fire Department said a heating torch ignited the fire in an interior wall, which caused an estimated $1,000 in damages. A construction crew was applying tar to the roof with the heating torch as part of the final work for the seismic retrofit of the girls' gym, said Superintendent Rich Fischer.
"We were really fortunate that (the fire) flared up when it did," said superintendent Rich Fischer. "If it had gone unnoticed, we could have lost ... Lord knows what."
Fisher said the fire damaged about a 10-foot square area. He said the construction company responsible for the fire is scheduled to repair the damages this week without causing any delays to the opening of the locker room.