Midwest City Middle School evacuated after smoke reported

Students and staff safely evacuated; HVAC malfunction blamed

Midwest City Middle School was evacuated Wednesday afternoon after smoke was reported inside the building.

Maj. David Richardson with the Midwest City Fire Department said a school resource officer called 911 around 2:22 p.m. after noticing smoke in the hallways. Fire crews responded and determined the issue was likely a malfunctioning heating or ventilation unit.

Firefighters found the heaviest smoke near Room 102 in the older portion of the school but did not locate an active fire. Richardson said a rooftop HVAC unit in that section of the building likely malfunctioned, possibly due to a motor failure. No injuries were reported.

Students and staff were safely evacuated and bused to another site, where families were reunited with students.

Mid-Del Public Schools Superintendent Rick Cobb said the incident occurred near the end of the school day, allowing the district to quickly implement its reunification plan.

“We had a fire in a heater closet here at Midwest City Middle School today,” Cobb said. “It was really just smoke more than it was flames, but we had to evacuate the building. All of our students and staff got out safely.”

Cobb said classes are expected to resume as normal on Thursday. However, some repairs will be needed after firefighters forced entry into several areas to assess the situation.

“We had some classroom doors that were damaged when firefighters came in,” Cobb said. “Over the next few days, we’ll be replacing some doors and hardware, but we’ll get that done.”

District maintenance crews were on scene working to address the HVAC issue. Cobb said the district’s reunification procedures, which were practiced last summer, were put to use during the evacuation.

“Thankfully, it’s a situation where nobody got hurt,” Cobb said. “Given that it came at the end of the day, we had to make a quick call to do an off-site reunification.”