Boy, 14, charged over school fire as pupils to study at home

A HUGE fire that broke out at a secondary school will mean that hundreds of students will have to study at home, a councillor has said, as a 14-year-old boy has been charged over the incident.

The teenager was arrested following the “suspicious” blaze at Woodmill High School in Dunfermline and is due to appear at Dunfermline Sheriff Court today, police have confirmed.

More than 80 firefighters from the Scottish fire and rescue service (SFRS) have been tackling the “large and complex” fire, which began on Sunday evening just after 5pm.

The blaze is understood to have started in the newly refurbished unit that provides additional support for children with learning difficulties, before spreading to the dining hall and on to the main building.

The exact cause remains unknown. The school, which is located around 20 miles north-west of Edinburgh, reopened its doors to 1,400 pupils returning from their summer holiday last Wednesday. But it will now be shut for the rest of the week as fire crews continue to contain the flames and prevent them from causing any more damage to the 61-year-old structure.

In the meantime, the students will be taught through “e-learning”, as the school talks to the local authority about a more permanent solution.

Teachers will be able to contact pupils and assign them work through the Glow system, an online learning platform accessible to all students enrolled in the school.

Possible long-term options are thought to include pupils being placed at one of the other three high schools across Fife or taught in “temporary accommodation”.

Fay Sinclair, the convener of Fife Council’s education and children’s services committee, told The Telegraph: “I was there last night until midnight and saw the extent of the fire. I was back down this morning and the firefighters were still tackling some of the flames in the middle of the building.

“There are certainly parts of the building that look like a shell. The department for additional support is destroyed but there is also significant damage to the end of another two blocks.”

SFRS incident commander, deputy assistant chief officer Stuart Stevens, said: “We have worked through the night in challenging conditions to contain this fire and prevent further spread within the building … this remains a large and complex incident and we will remain in attendance for some time.”

No casualties have been reported.