Firefighters were called Tuesday to the gymnasium at Summit Academy.

SUMMIT TWP — A small fire in the Summit Academy gymnasium started Tuesday morning when a staff member tried to thaw a frozen pipe with a blow torch, authorities said.

No injuries were reported, but the fire caused about $5,000 in damage.

Several fire departments were called just before 9:30 a.m. for heavy smoke reportedly coming from the building in back of the school on Herman Road in Summit Township.

“There was smoke coming out the eaves and smoke inside the gym,” said Rob McLafferty, chief of the Herman Volunteer Fire Company.

No students were in the gym, said Summit Academy spokesman Dick Roberts. All staff members got out safely.

The accidental fire started in the second-floor locker room.

“The blow torch caught some insulation paper on fire,” Roberts said. “It was minor.”

But the fire got into the wall, McLafferty said.

“We had to rip out a wall with tile on it in the (locker room) bathroom to get to the fire,” he said.

The blaze was extinguished with no further damage. Firefighters later ventilated the building.

Summit Academy is a school for court-adjudicated youth and young adults ages 14 to 19. The main school building was not evacuated because the gym is a detached structure.

Assisting the Herman VFC were firefighters from East Butler, Lick Hill, Saxonburg, Oneida Valley and South Butler.

The Saxonburg Volunteer Fire Company's ladder truck was deployed as a precaution, authorities said, but it was not used.

The last fire crew left about 11:30 a.m.