Fire strikes Hartwell school; Pupils file out without injury.

Byline: Shaun Sutner

WORCESTER - Fire broke out yesterday afternoon just before the closing bell at a special education school on Main Street (Route 9) near the Leicester town line.

No one was hurt in the 2:45 p.m. fire at Hartwell Learning Center, a regional kindergarten-through-Grade 12 school at 1407 Main St., across from the entrance to Goddard Memorial Drive.

Students were evacuated after an instructor's assistant heard a light fixture crash to the floor in one of the wooden modular classrooms behind the old brick schoolhouse, which used to be the New Ludlow School.

"Everybody was sent out, and I pulled the alarm at 2:50 and called 911," said Jessica Pitsillides, director of the school. "Everybody got out safe."

The fire started in a bathroom ceiling fan fixture and spread to the ceiling and ductwork just as school buses were arriving, according to District Fire Chief Frank D. DiLiddo III.

The school has an enrollment of 80 students from around the region. It is run by the Central Massachusetts Special Education Collaborative, which leases the building from the Worcester School Department.

Fire officials said the blaze, which spread to the roof and drew several dozen firefighters, could have been much worse because the old wooden units are highly flammable and have no foundations. The fire took about 15 minutes to put out.

The unit's smoke detectors did not go off because the smoke was vented upward toward the roof, the district chief said.

"We're very fortunate we were able to contain and isolate it," he said. "It's a tinderbox. A building like this had a lot of collapse potential."

It was unclear whether the modular classrooms, which had extensive electrical damage, will be reopened Monday, District Chief DiLiddo said.

Fire and smoke damage was confined to the ceiling and roof of one unit.

Contact Shaun Sutner by e-mail at [e-mail].