Iqaluit (Oct 27/03) - A quick-thinking science teacher grabbed a fire extinguisher and put out a small fire in a boy's upstairs washroom at Inuksuk High school last Tuesday that forced all 450 students to evacuate the premises.

Mr. Alexander Tufts, a science and math teacher, tackled the blaze with a fire extinguisher located in the hallway, after the school's fire alarm sounded at around 9:15 a.m. The fire had been set in a garbage can.

Other teachers rushed in to help. When fire crews arrived the fire was out, but the school was filled with smoke and the trash can was a heap of black, smouldering paper towels.

The trash can fire was set intentionally, according to the RCMP.

Principal Terry Young was not speculating about the fire's cause late Tuesday.

He sent the 450 students home for the afternoon because of the heavy stench of smoke in the school, and concerns about the fire alarm system which needed to be reset.

"It took a half an hour to clean up the mess," said Young. "There was no damage, really. Just a mess."

Young said the only real damage done was that students missed half a day of school.

"Assuming someone did it, and we don't know for sure how it started, but assuming it was a student, it's a pretty mean thing to do," Young said.

The Inuksuk Infant Development Centre, located within the school, was also evacuated.

"We took all the kids out," said assistant manager Rankhsana Ali of the 26 infants and small children. "Some of the babies were crying. They were scared."

But everything was back to normal at the daycare on Wednesday morning, Ali said.