A power outage prompted Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School officials to cancel classes and activities one day last week, while related power surges caused minimal damage to school equipment.

On Wednesday, January 23, a fire alarm sent the students and faculty outside of the building while officials investigated.

Shortly after the alarm sounded, officials from the Rochester Fire Department determined that there was no danger in the building. The students were then huddled inside of the school’s cafeteria to wait for the power to kick back on, which did not happen until late afternoon.

With outside temperatures holding steady below 20 degrees and the heat not working inside of the building, Superintendent Gary Brown said he made the decision to send the students home for the day and to cancel all of the after-school activities and sports. Games were rescheduled to this week.

NSTAR is still investigating the cause of the outage, which are not uncommon at the school, Brown said.

“We know that a few other residents in the area lost power. It can do some damage,” Brown said.

Brown said the school did experience a few power surges. One surge knocked out one of the automotive department's compressors, which is currently undergoing maintenance at the school.

By late afternoon Wednesday, the power was back on at the school and it was back to business as usual the next day.

“Everything was back up and running with no issues,” Brown said.