Firefighters spent Tuesday afternoon and evening battling a fire on the roof of New Milford High School-- the second such fire at the school in eight months. Officials report significant structure damage.
Crews had to climb onto the roof to put out hot spots. Five firefighters suffered minor injuries.
Jon Barbagallo, a spokesperson for several police and fire departments in Litchfield County, says the call came in at about 2:10 pm. He says about 15 fire departments were involved, either on scene or on standby. The fire was out by approximately 7 pm.
While school is out of session for the summer, there were some students and teachers in the building when the blaze broke out. They were safely evacuated.
"There were about 25 to 30 students that were doing credit recovery in the building," New Milford Schools Superintendent Alisha DiCorpo told WFSB-TV. "I was notified around 2:15. By that point, all students and faculty had been evacuated." Buses were used to move students from the scene.
The roof has been undergoing extensive work, and it also caught fire last December, leading to the evacuation of the school on a full day of classes. A contractor's blowtorch caused that fire, and a person familiar with the investigation says Tuesday's blaze may have been ignited by the same type of source.
