A fire broke out in the small gym at Amador Valley High School in Pleasanton, CA just before 8 p.m. on Sunday, March 17. The faulty electrical wiring in the building’s attic and walls was the suspected cause of the two-alarm fire, according to the Alameda County Fire Live Broadcastify. The fire caused the building to rapidly fill with smoke and forced an evacuation of Amador’s campus.

Firefighters from the Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department arrived at the school and attempted to ventilate the building in order to clear the smoke, however photos and videos from students at the scene showed that the building continued to be filled with smoke for over an hour. The LFPD sent 15 units to survey the scene with police and EMTs arriving as well.

Word of the fire spread online through platforms such as NextDoor, with individuals sharing photos and videos of the building engulfed in smoke and the Amador parking lot filled with fire engines.

Rumors began to spread as to the extent of the damage, including theories that the fire had spread to other buildings on campus. Photos from individuals on campus at the time of the fire show that fire engines were present on the campus in front of the Q building.

At approximately 8:40 p.m., the fire department decided to do a tactical retreat, a practice where firefighters attempt to withdraw and regroup in order to find the best plan to fight the fire.

At 9:05 p.m., the firefighters requested the City of Pleasanton send a building inspector to the school to assess the (presumably extensive) damage.

Crews began another tactical pause just past 9:00 p.m. in order to let fumes out of the building before continuing to fight the fire. Students at campus also reported that the fire department also shut off power at the Amador campus during the fire.

“I was just here very recently today for the closing of our musical 9 to 5 and a couple hours later, we were just hanging out and having a good time and nothing was amiss during the show. We came around and met a friend I haven’t seen in a while, and she told me ‘hey, Amador is ablaze,’ and we’re ‘like oh my goodness’ so we roll around here as quick as we can. The small gym had caught ablaze, and it looks like it spread to the top of the Amador theater too. We see firemen on top cutting through the roof hopping down to put the fire out, and then they shut off the power, so that’s about where we’re at now,” said Amador eyewitness Robin Fried (‘25).

The sprinklers activated at some point, but the fire department shut them down at 9:11 p.m.. Eyewitnesses reported that fire engines from one of the units left the campus shortly after 9 p.m..

At 9:12 p.m., a parent in an Amador Valley WhatsApp group shared a photo taken by their child who reported that the roof of the small gym had collapsed. The LFPD stopped the fire timer at 9:29pm according to the Alameda County Fire Live Broadcastify.

This comes just weeks after LPFD responded to an overnight power surge that caused electrical malfunctions in the D and E buildings, resulting in brief delays and relocation of classes from several D building classrooms, as well as leaving parts of the building without functioning heat or air conditioning.

Members of Amador Valley administration on-site at the time of the fire declined to provide a comment.

This story was originally published on Amador ValleyToday on March 17, 2024.