SUMTER COUNTY, Ga. (WALB) - Sumter County Schools closed its schools Thursday morning after smoke from a nearby field burn entered the ventilation system.

Superintendent Jerry Sanders said officials initially suspected an electrical fire, but investigators determined a farmer was burning something in a field near the school.

“We discovered that the smoke then through ventilation, the ventilation system, came into the school very thick inside of the school,” Sanders said. “So we initially was reporting that there was possibly some type of electrical fire, but we discovered that that wasn’t the case.”

The sheriff’s department cleared the buildings and confirmed no fire was reported in any school. Sanders said the smoke made it too dangerous for students and staff to remain in the buildings.

“Our sheriff department has been working diligently and making sure everything is safe, and we cleared everything,” Sanders said. “But yet it was still too dangerous for our scholars to be there in the school. So we made an executive decision leaning on the side of safety and for our students and our staff to protect them by not exposing them to that smoke.”

Four schools were affected: the primary, intermediate, elementary, and middle schools. All four schools are located in a hub close together. Staff reported to the high school for a district-wide meeting.

Schools are expected to return to normal operations on Friday.

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