Leominster High School and Abby Kelley Foster Charter Public School in Worcester will remain closed on Monday due to separate fire incidents.
An early morning fire in the cafeteria at Leominster High School today led to the closure of the school. The fire, which was caused by an electrical issue with refrigerator equipment, resulted in heavy smoke filling the cafeteria and surrounding hallways. Crews stayed on the scene throughout the morning to manage the aftermath shortly before students were due to arrive.
Over the weekend, Abby Kelley Foster Charter Public School in Worcester experienced a small electrical fire in its high school building, which occurred after complications with a water pipe, the Telegram & Gazette reported. As a result of the fire, school officials cancelled school Monday for grades 8 to 12. Abby Kelley’s elementary and middle schools remained open Monday.
Mayor Dean Mazzarella stated that although Leominster High School was closed, school buses continued to run normally to inform any students at bus stops about the closure and to ensure they returned home safely.
All other public schools in Leominster were open on Monday. The high school has canceled all practices for Monday, but away games will proceed as planned, the Telegram & Gazette reported.
“It’s best right now to just close school for the day,” Mayor Mazzarella said in a Facebook video where he addressed the fire.
Mayor Mazzarella attributed the fire at Leominster High to a faulty circuit in a refrigerator, noting that the building’s fire alarms and sprinklers had activated promptly, helping to prevent further damage to the facilities. The high school was closed to facilitate cleanup and to eliminate the smoke odor from the cafeteria, where the fire was localized, Mayor Mazzarella said.
