QUILCENE — Quilcene School will resume classes on Monday after a faulty valve that destroyed more than $10,000 worth of food in the kitchen freezer was fixed Friday.
School was canceled Friday because the school had no food for its 220 students after a sprinkler head was activated in the freezer at about 2:20 p.m. Thursday afternoon.
“We had just received a delivery that afternoon,” Principal James Betteley said Friday.
Total expenses related to the mishap — counting the value of the destroyed food, food replacement costs and the $800 to $1,000 needed to fix the freezer — probably will be $20,000 or more, Betteley said, adding with a sigh that the school has insurance.
“It’s going to be a pretty penny,” he said.
O-ring was culprit
An O-ring in a valve had been leaking a slight amount of water over a period of time, Betteley said he was told by the repair company.
The water froze. Ice expands. Eventually, it tripped the sprinkler head, and the fire alarm was activated, he said.
“The tech says it’s not uncommon,” Betteley said.
A “new, improved” valve was installed in the freezer, which is original to the complex when it was built 10 years ago, he said.
“We will put that valve on a replacement cycle.”
The principal was grateful for some things.
“I’m glad it wasn’t somebody tampering with it. I’m glad it wasn’t a fire,” he said.
“Everybody did a marvelous job,” he added.
“The Quilcene and Port Ludlow fire departments did great,” adding that both departments are always responsive when the school phones them.
Responders praised
“My hat’s off to all of them,” the principal said.
When the alarm went off, some people in the area thought they smelled smoke and phoned local fire departments.
Both fire departments arrived quickly, said Betteley in a memo distributed to staff at 5:53 p.m. Thursday.
The students were told before going home there would be no school Friday.
Also, school staff called every parent of a student in the kindergarten-to-12th-grade school to notify them of Friday’s closure.
“As of 1 p.m. [Friday], the freezer has been working just time,” Betteley said.
A school cook will shop this weekend to ensure food is available Monday, Betteley said. A new delivery of food is expected Monday afternoon.
Students will have only three days of classes next week, the last week before their spring break. Only parent-teacher conferences will be conducted Thursday and Friday.
“They’ll be no fire drill next week,” Betteley said. “I had one planned. But I’m going to mark it off. We had it.”
