Bury St Edmunds: Students and staff evacuate The Milburn Centre at West Suffolk College after reports of fire
Pupils and staff were forced to leave the construction and building services training centre at the The Milburn Centre at 11.55am after smoke was seen coming out of an extraction system in the carpentry workshop. - Credit: Archant
Scores of students and staff were evacuated from a West Suffolk College building today following reports of a fire.
Pupils and staff were forced to leave the construction and building services training centre at the The Milburn Centre at 11.55am after smoke was seen coming out of an extraction system in the carpentry workshop.
A spokesman for the college said an “unidentifiable heat source” caused the smoke to appear after firefighters from two crews found no trace of a blaze.
Martyn Wagner, vice-principal of business and community at the college, said there was no “danger” to students, who returned to the building at 2.30pm.
Mr Wagner added: “The fire service arrived very quickly and students had already been evacuated. Everyone behaved extremely professionally and our emergency systems worked to plan.
“The students reacted calmly and positively. The machines are out of action for now, but the students’ college work will not be affected because there is other equipment at The Milburn Centre which they can use.”
No students had to be sent home and firefighters said it was safe to reoccupy the building once they had carried out their inspection at 4.30pm, the college spokesman added.
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The extraction system will be flushed through and will be fully serviced before it is used again.
