LEWISTON – A fire that broke out in a dust-collection silo at Lewiston High School on Tuesday night did little damage to classrooms, officials said.

The fire was likely caused by overheated dust in the dust-collection hopper outside the woodworking shop in the vocational wing, Fire Inspector Paul Ouellette said.

The hopper is a small silo into which dust is blown from the wood shop.

“It blew heat and smoke into the building and blew out five sprinkler heads,” Ouellette said.

He said there was water damage only to the school building.

Lewiston and Auburn firefighters worked on the 7 p.m. blaze for about two hours. Water damage was contained to three adjacent classrooms – two wood shop and one electrical – as well as a portion of the hallway. The roof of the dust collection bin was heavily damaged.

Cleaning crews were expected to work in that section of the school later that night, said Leon Levesque, superintendent of the Lewiston School Department.

“Many of the classes in that area are doing community and winterization projects off-site at this time,” Levesque said.

Since damage was contained to one area, school would be held Wednesday, he said.

Firefighters were alerted when a teacher in the vocational wing saw smoke in the hall and pulled the fire alarm. Nighttime meetings and 14 adult education classes were in session, as well as drama club rehearsal for “Little Women.” All students and staff left the building safely, adult education director Eva Giles said.

No class was in session in the wood shop at the time.

Despite the freezing temperatures, a crowd quickly congregated in the student and teacher parking lots as firefighters unraveled additional hoses and made their way up the ladders to the roof.

Drama club members began singing to keep warm.

“We ran out of rehearsal and saw the smoke,” said Zan Wong, 16, a sophomore.

“None of us thought it was serious at first,” said Chris Belanger, 15 also a sophomore.

The students said the fire drills they’d experienced in the past made perfect sense to them at that moment.

Sun Journal staff writer Mark LaFlamme contributed to this report.