ROCKLAND — Many times, fire alarms turn out to be nothing more than burned food and false alarms. But at fire alarm at the South School on Broadway in Rockland just after 8 a.m. was the real thing, touched off by construction workers using a cutting torch to remove old piping who cut into a pocket of residual propane.

Rockland Fire Chief Chris Whytock said that when the first companies from Fire and EMS arrived on scene, they found that a fire had occurred inside the boiler room in the South School.

“The fire was extinguished before our arrival by construction workers, who were in the room at the time of the fire,” said Whytock. “The workers were removing discontinued piping that was used for fueling the boiler. One of the pipes had residual propane still inside it and when workers began to cut the pipe with a cutting torch, the propane flashed inside the boiler room.”

Whytock said the propane fire also ignited a plastic bucket being used to collect a small amount of waste oil.

He said that the room was evacuated and one of the workers re-entered the room and used a fire extinguisher to knock down the remaining fire before firefighters arrived.

Units that responded to the scene included Tower 3, Squad 3, Rescue 2, Car 1 and North East Ambulance. In addition, eight firefighters responded to the scene, with another six on standby at the station.

In his report about the incident, Whytock credited the building’s alarm system in allowing the fire department to get quicker notification of a problem, which in turn helps firefighters arrive on scene in a much shorter time period than a building with no monitored alarm.