PARKING outside Pennar Community School caused problems for emergency services responding to a small fire in one of the classrooms which started just before 9am today.

But firefighters have praised the school's quick response to the incident.

Firefighters were called at 8.53am (July 1) to a small fire in a ceiling light.

Two crews from Pembroke Dock fire station, as well as police and ambulance attended.

The school had been quickly evacuated and all pupils accounted for.

Firefighters extinguished the fire using two hose reel jets, two thermal imaging cameras, four breathing apparatus, and small gear.

Incident commander Phil Barry said the school did a “tremendous job” evacuating everyone and providing fire crews with assurances that the building was empty.

“Logistically it was a nightmare because we couldn’t get the appliance to it. We were about 100 metres away because of the time of day and people dropping kids off.

“We managed to overcome it but it does prolong the incident and does make it difficult. The ambulance was behind us but there was no way it could get in,” he said.

Mr Barry did thank the school for its well organised response despite the added difficulty of school not having officially started and registration not having taken place.

“The school plan in place was absolutely tremendous. In a couple of minutes we had 100% guarantee everybody had been evacuated safely. All credit to the school, it is obviously well drilled on what it had to do.

“They let us get on and gave us the information as we needed it. As a primary school that information is ‘is everybody out?’

“Thanks got to the school for their swift response, it’s our job to respond like that, they did a tremendous job,” added Mr Barry.

  • Contact MWWFRS for a free safety check on 0800 169123 or find out more on the Pembroke Dock fire station Facebook page.

A spokesman for the school said the classroom would be back to normal by Monday and the situation had been dealt with “wonderfully by everybody involved”. Its planned sports day went ahead later in the afternoon.

“It was handled very professionally, the children were very calm. Some of the younger ones got a little upset and parents took them home. After that it was a perfectly normal day and they handled it very, very well,” she added.

Head teacher Damon McGarvie added:

“Fortunately it was a small fire and the fire brigade responded very professionally.

“The staff and the parents were great. As soon as I asked for everyone to be evacuated, the staff clicked into action, they knew the process well and they carried it out efficiently.”

Mr McGarvie also praised the parents, who he updated during the incident via the school tannoy system. “I asked them to move to the main playground and there were no problems with that at all, and they stayed there with the children.”

Parents will be reminded about parking around the school by the local PCSO.