Student's Cellphone Causes Small Fire at Tilghman

A student's cellphone was the cause of a small fire Thursday morning at Paducah Tilghman High School that set off the school's fire alarm.

Paducah Public Schools Superintendent Donald Shively said a student was in class when her iPhone 6 started making noise. After that the student left class and went to an administrative office to attempt to fix the problem. Shively said that's when the girl's phone began to emit smoke.

"What we had was a student's cellphone start smoking and a small flame came out of it," Shively said. "As it started sparking it looked sort of like like fireworks, and she dropped it." 

Classes were evacuated briefly after the fire set off the school's alarm system. Shively said the only significant damage was to the girl's phone, which was destroyed. He said there was also a small burned spot on the carpet in the office where the fire occurred.