A SUSPECTED arson attack took place at South Dartmoor College, Ashburton, on Tuesday morning. A fire, believed to have been started by a student, broke out in a girls toilet on the ground floor of a three-storey maths block. Hundreds of students were evacuated from their lessons throughout the school after a youngster sounded the alarm. Firefighters from Ashburton and Buckfastleigh arrived at the scene at around 10.40am. Crews used a hose reel and wore four sets of breathing apparatus to quickly treat the blaze, which was thought to have started in a sanitary bin. Although there was no structural damage caused to the toilets, it was heavily smoked affected, and special ventilation equipment was used to clear the room. Station commander Rod Schneider, the fire officer in charge, said: 'There was concern at one point as one girl was unaccounted for, but she was later found elsewhere. 'Although we extinguished the fire quickly, there was a vast amount of sooty black smoke left in the building, which created a hell of a mess. 'It will take several days to completely clear.' No one was injured during the incident and headteacher Ray Tarleton praised the pupils for the way they conducted themselves, just weeks into the new term. 'The students were remarkable,' he said. 'They remained calm throughout and followed our fire procedures exactly.' Mr Tarleton confirmed that within the hour most of the lessons in the school were resumed, and classes were being held in the fire-threatened maths block by the afternoon. The police and a fire investigator were also called to the scene with the cause of the fire believed to be arson. Mr Tarleton confirmed that a CCTV camera, which points towards the toilet entrance, had identified a pupil leaving the building just before the fire broke out. 'We will await the results of a police investigation and we will also be launching our own investigation,' he said.
