Naperville Central High School's award-winning newspaper.

Central Times
Naperville Central High School's award-winning newspaper.

Central Times
Naperville Central High School's award-winning newspaper.

Central Times

Third fire alarm at Central this semester triggered by smoke in cafeteria serving line

Jake Pfeiffer, Editor-in-Chief
December 13, 2023
Nolan Shen
A Naperville Fire Department truck pulls into Central’s parking lot to respond to a fire alarm triggered on Dec. 13.

A fire alarm was triggered at Central at 2:13 p.m. on Dec. 13 by a smoking food warmer in the school’s cafeteria serving line. 

“The hot box in the serving line that keeps the food warm was smoking a lot,” principal Jackie Thornton said. “It was just smoke, no fire, but that’s what set the alarm off.”

Staff members were able to move the unit outdoors.

“That unit was able to be unplugged and we got that outside quickly,” Thornton said.

This was the third fire alarm triggered at Central this school year. The first went off on Oct. 16 due to smoke from construction in Central’s little theater, and the second was triggered by smoke in a basement maintenance office on Nov. 15.

“I feel like we have one [alarm] every year, but not three,” Thornton said. “That’s pretty abnormal.”

This was also the fourth fire alarm triggered in 2023, with a sparking and smoking box in Central’s field house prompted the pulling of a fire alarm on Jan. 17.

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About the Contributors
Jake Pfeiffer
Jake Pfeiffer, Editor-in-Chief
Jake Pfeiffer is a senior, entering his third year on the Central Times staff, this time as Editor-in-Chief. Jake joined CT as a sophomore because he wanted to write news, but since then he has grown to love just about every element of journalism. While it is rare to see Jake anywhere other than the CT office, occasionally you can find him captaining Central’s debate team, watching baseball, listening to a seemingly endless amount of podcasts or drowning in college applications.
Nolan Shen
Nolan Shen, Arts & Entertainment Editor
Nolan is a senior, entering his third year on staff. He is excited to be heading the Arts and Entertainment section this year. When not writing for CT, he can be found playing with the Marching Redhawks Drumline, performing in the Naperville Youth Symphony, eating too much McDonald’s, and watching bad sci-fi movies. Next year, he plans on going to college to study political science and hopefully not flunk out.
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