Calabasas Principal Commends Parent, School Response to Nearby Fire

With a road closure due to a house fire, parents at Lupin Hill Elementary in Calabasas were left will no choice but to park their cars and walk their children to the school.

Despite the choas and traffic Wednesday morning, Principal Sheila Grady said school administrators were prepared for the closure of Adamore Road leading up to the school because of a state-mandated emergency plan, which is updated every year.

"What we’ve learned looking at [the emergency plan] so closely, you have to be ready and you have to practice it enough times that it just rolls off. This is an emergency this is what we do. We can’t be nervous," Grady said.

The principal said during emergencies, the school already had plans to hold a drill that included closure of Adamore Road.

"Our tasks this year was to have a drill in which we close off the street, so that parents would know what they should do in a real emergency when they could not drive up the hill," Grady said.

She said the parents and students passed with flying colors.

"We knew what to do because we had discussed it," Grady said. "Most of the parents were really fine. Some were really scared."

Read more about the house fire and its impact on the start of the school day here.