LUNENBURG, MASS. (WHDH) - SKY 7 HD was over Lunenburg Middle-High School, showing students evacuating the building due to a fire on the roof.
Fire crews responded to the school around lunchtime and found five solar panels in flames.
“It’s still under investigation, but it’s probably an electrical malfunction, wear and tear, short circuit,” Chief Patrick Sullivan said of the Lunenburg Fire Department. “The building’s about 8-years-old.”
Cellphone video from a student shows smoke rising over the building. Chief Sullivan says maintenance staff noticed the smoke first before, literally, sounding the alarm.
“All the emergency planning worked well,” Chief Sullivan said. “School was evacuated quickly, no injuries.”
Jodi Fortuna, the Superintendent of Lunenburg Schools, says students and staff usually have a fire drill the first week of school. But they weren’t expecting the real thing on the first day.
“It’s the first day – it was my first day with kids in Lunenburg and it was a little jittery but everything went according to our emergency plans,” Fortuna said.
“It was hectic, but everyone was communicated with pretty well,” Tatum Furman said, a senior at Lunenburg Middle-High School.
Furman says her last first day will be pretty memorable.
“Won’t forget the first day of my senior year, that’s for sure,” Furman said.
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