ALL students and staff at Hastings Public School in Port Macquarie were evacuated at lunchtime on Tuesday (September 10) after a small electrical fire.
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Port Macquarie Fire and Rescue NSW received a call from the school at about 12.50pm alerting them of the fire.
Crews rushed to the school, they were supported by police, standby ambulance units and Essential Energy staff.
Students were supervised by staff on the netball courts while fire crews assessed the building.
Station commander and incident controller Geoff Peacock said firefighters found a storeroom alight.
"On arrival we found smoke issuing from the rear of the hall," he said.
"We found a fire burning inside a storeroom of the auditorium.
"Investigations are ongoing but it would appear to be a solar panel issue. There is damage to the cables and one of the solar panel inverters as well as the storeroom by the fire.
"Power was isolated to the entire premise until we could determine the cause of the fire. Now we are waiting on an electrician to isolate the solar panel supply from the roof.
"The fire was contained in that storeroom."
Mr Peacock thanked school staff, emergency services and firefighters who attended.
"We were aware that prior to arrival all 640 students and 45 staff had evacuated to the netball courts," he said.
"Excellent work from the school staff to evacuate all the students into the area prior to our arrival, it certainly eases our minds while we work.
"Also excellent work from the firefighters during the fire."
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