MADURAI: The students in a private school in Palayamkottai in Tirunelveli city abandoned their books and bags and ran out the school building on Wednesday afternoon when a fire broke out in a classroom due to a suspected electric short circuit.Nobody was injured in the incident happened in Rose Mary School. The fire damaged notebooks, furniture and a few electronic gadgets.The fire broke out around 12.15pm, and a thick smoke emanated from a smart classroom on the second floor of the three-storey building. Noticing the smoke, teachers evacuated the students from the building and informed the fire and rescue services department.Station fire officer of Palayamkottai fire station U Ramesh told TOI that they received a fire call around 12.30pm.Two fire tenders reached the spot and started firefighting. “Students were evacuated and efforts to fight the flames began immediately. The flames were put out in a short time,” he said.“We suspect that the flames could have been triggered by a short circuit in the smart classroom. There were fire extinguishers on the floor, but they were not used,” he added.District collector Shilpa Prabhakar Satish, deputy commissioner of police for Tirunelveli City Suguna Singh, officials from the school education and other departments visited the place and conducted preliminary inquiries. The collector told reporters that the school records would be perused and action would be taken against the management if there was any fault on their part.

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