Fire at Voorhees high school hospitalizes seven

By Joseph A. Gambardello, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: November 14, 2012

Updated at 11 a.m. Tuesday

Six students and a teacher were taken to hospitals Monday after a fire erupted during a classroom science experiment at Eastern Regional High School in Voorhees.

The teacher and five of the students were treated at Virtua Voorhees hospital and released,  Voorhees Police Chief Louis Bordi said Tuesday morning. The sixth student was taken to Cooper University Hospital in Camden and then transferred to St. Christopher's Hospital for Children in Philadelphia for treatment of "more serious injuries." That student's condition has not been released.

The cause of the fire -- described by a Bordi as a "fireball" -- remains under investigation, the chief said.

In a two-sentence statement on its website, the Eastern Camden County Regional School District said the seven had been taken to hospitals "for medical treatment and for precautionary reasons." The district offered no update Tuesday morning.

The fire was reported just before 1 p.m. and students said it erupted when the teacher was demonstrating an experiment in a classroom lab.

The school, which has about 2,200 students from Voorhees, Gibbsboro, and Berlin Borough, was evacuated after the fire.

 

 

Contact Joseph Gambardello at 856-779-3844 or jgambardello@phillynews.com.

 

 

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