CCVS evacuated after change room fire

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A Cornwall fire truck sits outside Cornwall Collegiate and Vocational School on March 2, 2015. The school was evacuated after a fire in a garbage can in a change room. (Cornwall Newswatch/Bill Kingston)

CORNWALL – Students at Cornwall Collegiate and Vocational School (CCVS) returned to the school Monday afternoon just to pick up their things after a fire this morning.

Cornwall firefighters were called around 11 a.m. for a fire in a garbage can in a change room in the school on Sydney Street, between Fourth and Fifth Streets.

Upper Canada District School Board Superintendent of Schools David Coombs tells Cornwall Newswatch the roughly 600 elementary and secondary school students safely evacuated the building.

They were being housed at the school’s evacuation point – Central Public School.

“All the staff have accompanied them down there and we bought them pizza so we’re feeding them,” Coombs said. “Things are fine there.”

Coombs says they were waiting for the all-clear from firefighters before the students can return to the school.

Coombs says some parents are showing up at Central Public School to pick up their kids but the board would prefer to dismiss students from CCVS if possible.

The students were bussed back to CCVS to retrieve belongings and get stuff from their lockers just before dismissal, read a statement from the school board.

After speaking with people on the ground at CCVS, Coombs says the damage appears to be isolated to a small area of the school. He says they are more worried about air quality before letting students return.

“I don’t think there’s extensive structural damage. I don’t think there’s anything that’s going to keep us from getting in the school tomorrow,” Coombs said.

The school board statement says the school will be open and classes will resume Tuesday.

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