PEABODY, MA — A Chromebook fire caused the evacuation of the Higgins Middle School in Peabody early Tuesday afternoon.

Peabody Superintendent Josh Vadala told Patch that the evacuation was “out of an abundance of caution” after an electrical issue with the computer sparked the fire and that students and staff were able to return to the building in about 10 minutes before the school resumed a regular schedule.

“Peabody Fire, Police and EMS responded within minutes and cleared the scene,” Vadala said. “We would like to thank our first responders as well as our staff and students for an exceptional job handling the situation.”

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The Peabody school fire is the latest involving a laptop in recent months after an 11-year-old student was burned in Uxbridge when a laptop started smoking in a school during an MCAS test in April and a Brockton middle school was evacuated when an eighth-grader’s laptop began smoking while he was taking an English test in October.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at [email protected]. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)

Find out what's happening in Peabodyfor free with the latest updates from Patch.


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