A fire in the motor of the elevator at Pottsville Area's John. S. Clarke Elementary Center on Wednesday morning forced the district to evacuate the building, according to Superintendent Jeffrey S. Zwiebel.
"The motor in the elevator did catch fire, and it tripped the alarm," Zwiebel said.
The 985 students and 77 staff members at the school were evacuated for a half hour while local fire officials extinguished the blaze and secured the scene.
The elevator is used by students with disabilities and staff. It is the school's only elevator and it will be out of service for a week, until the motor is replaced at a cost of "less than $400," Kerry L. Ansbach, district facilities director, said Wednesday night.
"It might be back in service next Thursday," Ansbach said.
Both Ansbach and Zwiebel said this will not inconvenience the students or the staff.
The incident occurred at 8:55 a.m. The city fire department responded, and the scene was cleared by 9:20 a.m., according to a supervisor at Schuylkill County Communications Center.
City fire Chief Todd March could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
The school opened in January 1982, according to the newspaper's archives.
Ansbach said the elevator was installed around that time.
On Wednesday morning, while one of district's custodians was using the elevator the motor shorted out.
"The windings shorted because of its age. It burned off the vermiculite that's on top of the windings and that gave off a little smoke and odor. But we immediately pulled the disconnect and that was the end of that," Ansbach said.
The vermiculite, a form of insulation, was "smoldering," Ansbach said.
During the evacuation, Pottsville Area bused the elementary students to D.H.H. Lengel Middle School.
At the time, students from 11 area schools were visiting the district's Martz Hall gymnasium for the 6th Annual Schuylkill County Career Fair.
Minersville Area made an effort to transport "approximately 70 students" to the career fair in two buses, but the Minersville Area bus turned around when faced with fire truck and school bus traffic congestion, according to Carl McBreen, superintendent at Minersville Area.
"Apparently, they had trouble getting through, so I recommended they return. And we didn't want to get in Pottsville's way if they were having an evacuation," McBreen said.
The Minersville students were expected to attend the career fair from 9 to 10:15 a.m., McBreen said.
