Evacuation as blaze breaks out at school

A Shropshire primary school was evacuated after a fire broke out in the building.

Nearly 400 pupils and 30 members of staff from Wrekin View Primary School in Wellington, Telford, were forced to leave the building yesterday.

The blaze, involving an electric cooker, broke out in the school's nursery kitchen.

More than 10 firefighters, including the incident commander from Shrewsbury, spent more than two hours at the school after the fire broke out just before 2pm.

Cathy Hobbs, headteacher at the school, said: "What happened was an accident. The fire started in an electric cooker and was contained to a small kitchenette in the nursery area of the school.

"The incident did disrupt lessons as we had to evacuate all 370 pupils and 30 staff.

"The fire service praised the school for our evacuation procedure, which they said was exemplary."

She added: "The very youngest children were moved to the hall where they waited for their parents to pick them up."

The site was cleared by 3.15pm and the school was open as normal today.

Telford & Wrekin Council's occupational health and safety team is carrying out an investigation into the cause of the fire.

Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service said it sent two appliances from Wellington, in addition to the incident commander, to deal with the fire.

Firefighters at the scene, equipped with breathing gear, used a hose reel jet to tackle the fire.