OGDENSBURG — BOCES students were evacuated and sent back to their districts following a fire today at the center.

“The fire occurred when a table saw caught fire, triggering safety alarms,” according to BOCES officials. “Local fire and police departments immediately responded to our school.”

The blaze, which was reported around 10:20 a.m., was in the Natural Resources Management area at Northwest Career & Technical Center.

Ogdensburg firefighters stretched an attack line to the fire location and found a table saw on fire filling the natural resource room and adjacent rooms with smoke,” fire officials said.

The fire was quickly extinguished, but due to the small size of the building and amount of smoke, ventilation had to be conducted, officials said.

Students and staff who were in the building at the time were evacuated, and later relocated to Kennedy Elementary School due to the outdoor temperature, until fire officials confirmed the area was safe to re-enter.

As a result, there were no afternoon classes at the tech center today, Dec. 13.

This includes all CTE and special education classes, officials said. Districts were notified and picked students up to return to their home schools.

“We would like to thank the Ogdensburg Police Department and the Ogdensburg Fire Department for responding quickly. We would also like to thank Kennedy Elementary School for allowing us to relocate our students to ensure they were kept safe and warm while the situation was being addressed,” BOCES officials said.