Devonshire -- destroying projects for the school's Open House.

Flames rampaged through the Roberts Avenue special school, which provides training and work experience to mentally challenged individuals, around 1 a.m.

yesterday.

Nine firefighters, some wearing breathing apparatus, fought the blaze, which was started by an electrical fault. The Fire Service estimated damage at $50,000.

"My phone rang at 2.15 a.m. this morning,'' said Opportunity Workshop principal Nathaley Landy. "When you're awakened out of a cold sleep you can't comprehend what's being said for a few seconds.'' By the time Mrs. Landy arrived at the school just before 3.00 a.m. the flames were extinguished by firefighters. An official estimate on the damages has not been revealed. The classroom where the fire started was completely destroyed.

Mrs. Landy said it had been a workroom where the school's trainees had been making pillows for the school's Open House. The Open House had been planned for May 15 -- a date also swallowed up by the flames.

"That's when we have the rooms open and parents and the general public are invited to see what we do here. We also have various projects and produce crafts which we have on sale. The pillows were one of those projects,'' said Mrs. Landy.

Blaze guts part of school Yesterday the classroom where the blaze started, OW2, was a site of devastation. The inside of the door was bubbled and puckered from the heat.

Glass and charred remains were scattered all over the blackened room and outside.

The windows were blown out by the heat and the Fire Service had to make a hole in the roof to let the smoke out.

Next door, classroom OW1, had been used as a studio to work with Opportunity Workshop trainees in managing a household and various household chores.

The room, destroyed by smoke and water damage, had contained a wide array of household appliances -- refrigerator, washer and dryer, dishwasher, toaster oven, microwave, stove -- which were lost. Even the fluorescent lights on the ceiling were destroyed. Their casings melted and hung down from the ceiling like plastic stalactites.

And while she said she could not estimate what the figure would be, other reports have said the figure could be as much as $50,000.

Ironically, the classrooms of Opportunity Workshop once served as stand-ins for Harrington Sound Primary after that school was set ablaze by four Saltus students in 1999.

But foul play was not the cause of the Opportunity Workshop blaze. Sgt. Mark Hitchcock of the Fire Service last night said they had ruled out arson.

Investigations revealed that the fire started as a result of an electrical short in the northeast corner of OW2.

As the room was filled with foam and fabric used for making the pillows the trainees were working on, there was much to fuel the flames.

Mrs. Landy said that the damages will have a direct effect on all 36 of the school's trainees.

Many of the trainees did not come in on Thursday having heard about the blaze on the radio. Mrs. Landy said she's not quite sure yet how the school will deal with the loss of the classrooms and their contents. "We'll just have to double up in some way,'' she said shaking her head.