A fire just a couple of metres from Clyde School's $1million hall drifted ash all over the school grounds yesterday.
It was quickly doused by a Clyde Volunteer Fire Brigade crew.
A cabbage tree was the only "casualty''.
Principal Doug White said the fire was believed to have been started by a spark from a mower hitting a stone.
"We'd had a fire drill at school only two days earlier so the kids knew exactly what to when it was a real fire call and went into auto-pilot, going to the right place straight away,'' he said.
The fire started in an out-of-bounds area for pupils, in trees next to the Whitby St side of the hall.
The hall was opened about five years ago.
"It was lucky there wasn't a strong southerly blowing, like the day before, and lucky we had some rainfall overnight. Otherwise, the fire could've got into the wooden eaves of the building and would've got out of hand very easily,'' Mr White said.
He noted the school's links to the volunteer firefighters who attended the callout.
The crew included a pupil's grandparent, a pupil's parent and several former pupils' parents.
