Traunstein, October 01: A boy playing with fire nearly burned down Pope Benedict’s old boarding school in Germany, police said Wednesday.
Fire crews rushed to St Michael’s College after an electronic fire alarm detected smoke in the building late Tuesday.
A pupil, 18, who had burned part of a papier-mache egg carton for fun had then thrown it on a stack of paper with an edge still glowing. The rest of the paper began to smoulder.
Fire brigades quickly put out the fire, police in nearby Rosenheim said, and the damage was slight, but 30 boarders needed treatment after inhaling smoke.
Joseph Ratzinger, now Benedict XVI, boarded at the Catholic school from 1937 until it was closed down by Nazi authorities during the Second World War. At the time it was known as the Archdiocesan College of Traunstein.
St Michael’s currently has 70 boarding pupils.
–Agencies