Greenwood schools custodian hailed for quick actions during fire

An Isom Elementary School custodian was honored Tuesday for going “above and beyond” by putting out an October classroom fire.

Steve Raney, who has been a custodian for Greenwood Community Schools for a decade, received an Outstanding Citizen Award from the Greenwood Fire Department for his quick actions during an Oct. 24 fire inside a classroom at Isom. Greenwood Fire Chief Jayme Washel presented Raney with the honor at the beginning of a Greenwood school board meeting Tuesday night, giving him a certificate and a Greenwood Fire challenge coin.

“It really brings home fire safety and what we do in the school system and things like that,” Washel said. “But Mr. Raney went above and beyond his duties as a custodian at Isom.”

Just before 11 a.m. on Oct. 24, a teacher at Isom was on her way to an empty classroom to get something while she was escorting a second-grade class to recess when she noticed something wasn’t right. She noticed smoke and called Raney over to look in the room.

When he walked into the room, Raney found a fire.

“When I walk in, I can see the fire on the bookshelf,” Raney recalled. “The surge protector … was plugged in, but it was on top of the bookshelf. It was on fire and caught the bookcase on fire.”

Raney radioed the front office to tell them what was happening as the teacher pulled a fire alarm to begin evacuating the school.

“He radioed that it was real, that the fire was real because [the teacher] pulled the alarm, and you don’t know in an elementary school, did a kiddo pull the alarm?” said Julie Young, Isom Elementary principal.

With firefighters on the way and an evacuation underway, Raney immediately grabbed a fire extinguisher and began to put out the fire. He had it put out by the time the fire department arrived, he said.

“That’s not a job requirement for our staff, our custodians, to fight fires,” said Terry Terhune, superintendent. “He took it upon himself to do that; to make sure that the kids were safe and the staff was safe and the building was safe.”

No one was injured during the fire, and all students were quickly accounted for, Terhune and Young said. The cause of the fire was ultimately determined to be from an old electric stapler that caught fire while plugged into a surge protector.

“The electric stapler that was plugged in, was fried and melted at where it was plugged in. It was in the area that the surge protector was very melted as well,” Young said.

Not only did Raney put out the fire, but he also came in early the next morning to help clean up the room. After the efforts of Raney and another custodian, the room was ready by mid-day, Terhune said.

Terhune wanted to honor him for his efforts. He reached out to the Greenwood Fire Department, and Washel said he’d love to recognize Raney for what he did.

So, at the beginning of Tuesday night’s school board meeting, Raney was recognized by Washel with school officials and school board members in attendance. Staff members from Isom also watched Raney be honored.

Young described Raney’s actions as amazing, saying he told her his first thought was to get the kids out of the building.

“That’s Steve; he cares more than anybody will ever realize about this building, the students and staff that are in it,” Young said.

Raney is deserving of the honor, Young said. He always dedicates any time that he can to help out the school and its staff, she said.

“It was very deserving that he was recognized for this because this is just one example of how he goes above and beyond for Isom, the students and staff,” she said.

Raney said it was hard to describe how he felt after receiving the honor, saying he didn’t expect it.

“It didn’t seem like that big of a deal at the time. … I didn’t really think about it. I’d just seen it,” he said. “The biggest thing I was worried about was I’d never used a fire extinguisher before. I was like, ‘I hope I know how to use it.’”