Students, parents shaken up after laptop catches on fire inside school bus

FITCHBURG, Mass. — It was a terrifying morning for Monty Tech students when a laptop suddenly caught fire inside a school bus on Wednesday.

School officials say the incident happened when students were being taken by bus from Sterling back to Fitchburg, where the school is based at.

The bus was evacuated when the driver noticed a cloud of smoke coming from one of the rows on the bus.

Out of caution, the school collected all the Chromebooks assigned to students following the incident.

Students were frightened to learn the fire happened after one of their classmate's laptops ignited inside their backpack.

"I didn't believe it, kind of weird," said Lexis Vautoul, a junior. "You don't think your Chromebook that the school provides are going to suddenly catch fire basically."

No one was injured, but parents say they're bothered by the thought that it could've been way worse.

"I was a little concerned, I mean you don't want your students' backpacks bursting into flames and [you] certainly don't want that happening at home when it's unattended," said Stacey Dwyer, a parent.

According to Sterling firefighters, the device caught fire due to a failure in the battery cells. Photos posted of the destroyed computer show the bottom melted right through the student's backpack.

"If it's that one, there could be many others, you don't know," said Rob Sylvester, a parent.

Students told Boston 25 News they just got the Chromebook and use them daily for their assignments.

"It's crazy cause they're brand new, we just got them this year, said Vautoul. "We returned our old ones and got brand new ones."

The school says the manufacturer of the laptops, HP, is investigating the incident.

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