Stamford School Evacuated
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"A breaker tripped and the wire got really, really hot," said Principal Beth Keplinger. "The lights started flickering so we evacuated the building."
The Fire Department was called at about noon, as was Mclain Electric of Clarksburg, Mass., to assess the situation. Green Mountain Power was also expected to send a crew. There was no fire but parts of the school were without power so it was decided to send the children at the kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school home.
While the children got an unexpected half day, the school's staff got a chance to see how well its evacuation plan worked. It was believed to be the first time - at least in recent memory - that the children had had to be evacuated off the property, said Keplinger.
The pupils were taken to the nearby Stamford Community Church and later loaded onto buses.
"The kids were perfect," said Keplinger. "We had the staff in place, the buses came and got the kids. It worked out well for an evacuation."
The school had had an evacuation drill last fall that went very smoothly, she said.
The school subscribes to AlertNow, a telecommunications service that automatically calls parents and guardians to let them know the children were being sent home. It also lets families know about other school closings.
It was unclear if the school would be ready to open Thursday.
Power Outage
Another electrical problem in Williamstown, Mass., left some 3,000 customers without power for a brief time Wednesday morning.
Deborah Drew, a spokeswoman for National Grid, said an equipment failure at 7:25 p.m. at the substation on Main Street caused the outage. The blown insulator left Williams College in the dark and affected businesses and homes along Route 7 as well.
All the customers were back online by 8 a.m., said Drew.
