A faulty heater is believed to have been the cause of a fire at a school in Inverness.
Balloch Primary School was closed to pupils yesterday following the blaze on Sunday, but was expected to re-open today.
Firefighters were called to the P5/6 classroom at the school just before 11am on Sunday amid reports of smoke coming from the building.
Three appliances and a lifting platform attended the Culloden Road school and the fire service personnel had the blaze under control within 45 minutes.
The classroom building suffered 10% fire damage and 90% smoke damage.
A fire service spokesman confirmed yesterday that they believed it to have been “electrical” in nature, and that no-one was present at the time of the incident.
The Press and Journal understands that a heater in the building was the source of the blaze.
Station Manager Alex McKinley, the incident commander, said: “Our crews arrived to find smoke issuing from a traditionally-built, single-storey sandstone building which was approximately 20m by 10m in size.
“Two teams of two firefighters were committed wearing breathing apparatus. They gained entry and began aggressive firefighting using two high pressure jets.
“The building was very heavily smoke-logged so our firefighters were operating in challenging conditions.
“They successfully extinguished the fire and worked to ventilate the premises, which had sustained severe smoke damage.”
The school roll is 237 primary and 50 nursery pupils.
A Highland Council spokeswoman confirmed that the school would re-open today.
She added: “The school and nursery is closed today for public safety while works are being carried out to erect fencing around the single-classroom building and to allow clearing up of any debris.
“As the affected building is within the playground area of the school and is adjacent to the separate nursery building the school is closed while the clean-up and safety fencing works are ongoing.”
The 20 P6/5 pupils usually taught in the affected building will be temporarily relocated to the general purposes room in the main school building until alternative arrangements can be put in place.
It is anticipated that alternative accommodation such as a demountable unit in the school playground may need to be considered to accommodate the class while restoration works are completed.
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