NORTH ATTLEBORO - School resumed Wednesday for students at the Martin Elementary School, but without school lunch services because of a kitchen fire Tuesday.

Instead, parents were told to send their children to the elementary school with bag lunches because the kitchen was not completely ready to serve lunches, Superintendent Rick Smith said on Wednesday.

School officials provided bag lunches for students who could not bring a bag lunch, Smith said.

A 4-foot by 6-foot freezer about 4 feet high caught fire Tuesday afternoon, sending thick, acrid smoke throughout the kitchen and cafeteria and parts of the school.

The fire was confined to the freezer, but the smoke was so thick and abundant that it filled the cafeteria, which has a 20-foot high ceiling. "The report from the fire department was that the smoke came down to their heads and shoulders," Smith said. A cleaning company, J. Brian Day of Plainville, worked Tuesday and Wednesday cleaning smoke and soot from the building.

"The cleaning company did an excellent job," Smith said.

The superintendent said he was confident the cleaning company would be finished and school lunch services will be served again Thursday.

The cause of the fire was believed to have started in the motor of the freezer, Fire Chief Peter Lamb said.

Smith said he did not have a dollar estimate of the damage and the cleanup.