At 12:34 p.m. on March 1 during the annual Mid Continent Color Guard Association (MCCGA) Festival, the kitchen accidentally released too much smoke causing the fire alarms to trigger, resulting in the fire department and O’Fallon Police Department to show up.

A firetruck responded quickly, showing up only eight minutes after the trigger at 12:42. Firefighters disabled the alarm and officers made sure everyone was ok. No one in the kitchen was harmed as this was a false alarm. The crowd then made their way back inside,

Dan Schoonover, one of the responding officers, provided insight on the situation. 

“We are responding to a call about people cooking hamburgers in the kitchen where they had a bunch of smoke roll in,” Schoonover said.

Kassandra Starr is the Color Guard Director and is the show host of the annual competition. As soon as the alarms went off, she was spotted on the phone with other staff and managing the situation.

“It was pretty crazy, but our parents are great. We had our walkie talkies setup in our system to make sure everybody got out. We got the fire department on call, and (activities director) Mr. Eldredge got here really quick, so everything was good,” Starr explained.

In the end, the fire alarm gave the performers a good long break before the second of the competition.