Fire At UA Building At Brookline High School

BROOKLINE, MA — Brookline fire fighters say they quickly got a fire under control at the Unified Arts building at the High School at 46 Tappen Street.

One girl had burn marks on her sweatshirt but did not need to go to the hospital, according to fire officials.

Fire officials say High School staff evacuated the building quickly after a welding gas tank had a "mini" explosion during a jewelry making class. The 14-year old student was igniting a torch which may not have been properly "purged," and that caused the mini explosion. She dropped the tank and a fire broke out from the leaking welding tank. Staff quickly evacuated that room and the rest of the building as fire fighters made their way to the second floor room just after 11:30 a.m. The fire was out by 11:52 a.m. according to officials.

They did an excellent job evacuating here at the high school, said Deputy Chief Colin O'Connell.

The fire was contained to the jewelry making room. He said there was flame damage to three of the four tanks, he said.

"It was pretty serious. I'll tell you, the school the teachers and the supervisors did an excellent job of evacuating," he said. O'Connell went in with not one chemical extinguisher, but two.

Fire fighters went back into the building and brought out three other small tanks from the classroom and out onto Cypress Field, to make sure they were not posing a risk to the building.

The building is separate from the main high school building and houses more hands on classes from culinary to welding courses. It's also home to the Brookline Interactive Group, the town's cable access station.

Just as the Brookline Fire Department was waiting for a gas company to come dispatch the tanks, the fire alarm sounded across Cypress Field to the main building where students began pouring out. That was a false, alarm, according to fire officials. About 10 minutes after students were given the all clear, someone apparently pulled an alarm there again forcing students to evacuate once more.

Updates to come.

Photos by Jenna Fisher/Patch