Breaking: Thoreau Elementary School closed Tuesday after overnight fire
No one was hurt, but water damaged several classrooms, Fire Chief Brian Whitney told The Acton Bridge.
Thoreau Elementary School will be closed Tuesday after a late-night fire broke out in a classroom ceiling, officials announced.
The flames triggered a sole sprinkler head, Fire Chief Brian Whitney told The Acton Bridge.
Officials credited the sprinkler system with stopping the spread of the “small fire.” Firefighters finished dousing the flames.
No one was hurt, but water damaged several classrooms, Whitney told The Bridge.
The fire remained under investigation, Whitney said, but authorities weren’t considering it “suspicious.”
Firefighters from Acton, Acton, Bedford, and Maynard headed to the school starting around 9:15 p.m. Monday following reports of an alarm and sprinkler activation, according to a joint news release from the fire department and Acton Public Schools.
Night custodians met first responders at the scene and there was “significant smoke throughout the building.”
Firefighters remained at the school to ventilate it. Prairie Street had reopened as of around 11:15 p.m., police said.
Schools Superintendent Laurie Hunter was on scene.
A previous fire at the Thoreau School grew to three alarms in 2021, according to a Acton Journal report at the time.
— Celeste Katz Marston contributed reporting.
