Smoke scare at NHHS

GAINESVILLE - A smoke scare at North Hall High School led to a brief evacuation of the school Monday morning.

Hall County Schools Supt. Will Schofield said the smoke was coming from a biology classroom. He said the initial assumption was that a hot plate, which is used to conduct lab experiments, had been left on; however, the fire scene investigator said that it appeared to him that it had been turned off, but may have a short in the switch.

It was, Schofield said, a close call.

"Because of the fact that we had a small fire in a room with a lot of chemicals, it could have be a bad situation," Schofield said.

Schofield said the hot plate was used for experiments.

Students and faculty members were evacuated to the football field until the fire department sounded the all-clear.

Schofield said the fire investigator took the hot plate with him to conduct an engineering investigation to confirm the cause.