PARIS – Students were evacuated from Oxford Hills Middle School on Wednesday morning after two employees found that an electrical panel had ignited, filling a custodial room with thick smoke, head custodian Rick Andrews said.
The fire, which Andrews said was small and probably only burning for about three minutes, was quickly put out after he and Don Morin, who works in maintenance for SAD 17, smothered it with a fire extinguisher.
The two first smelled burning plastic and thought it was light-fixture ballast before locating the fire inside a smoking circuit-breaker box.
Andrews said the fire was likely caused by a loose screw that got too hot and started burning the plastic around the circuit breakers.
Electricity went out in the music room, some bathrooms and the cafeteria.
Principal Hal Small said that the school made arrangements with the high school to bring hot lunches to the school, where they would stay warm in the one oven that still worked.
All the students evacuated school around 9 a.m., standing outside for about 15 minutes. Eighth-graders taking the Maine Educational Assessment Exams were interrupted.
Small said during his 14 years at the school, there has never been another fire.
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