CUMBERLAND — One student was sent to the hospital for smoke inhalation and faculty and students were briefly evacuated from the high school yesterday morning after a small fire broke out in an attached storage garage.

The state fire marshal and local police are investigating the cause of the fire; Schools Supt. Donna Morelle said that officials believe the cause of the fire “may have been students smoking.”

The fire apparently started at about 8:45 a.m. in a garage located on the west side of the high school campus, behind the art and music wing.

The locked room houses equipment for the high school sports teams and is accessible only to coaches and administration. The police said it is unclear how the fire started, and no one was in or around the room when emergency personnel arrived on the scene.

The Cumberland Hill Fire Department and the police responded to the high school after the fire apparently set off the school’s fire alarm. The fire, which the police said was confined to a trash can, was contained by the sprinkler system and smoldering by the time emergency personnel arrived. A male student, 15, whose name the police and rescue officials were not releasing yesterday, was transported to Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Providence. The condition of the student is unknown, the police and rescue officials said.

Deputy Chief Michael L. Kinch said that the student was not in the garage at the time of the fire and suffered smoke inhalation as smoke from the fire entered the main building.

The police said there was minimum damage to the garage and sports equipment. Morelle said that “at no time was the safety of the students and staff determined to be in jeopardy.”

“There would have been a lot more damage had there not been any sprinklers,” said Detective Capt. James P. Coyne. The town recently installed a sprinkler system throughout the high school as part of the school’s multimillion-dollar renovation and expansion. Students and faculty in the main high school building were evacuated to the gymnasium, or Wellness Center. Students and faculty in the adjacent Transitional Building, which houses the school district administration offices and some high school classrooms, were not affected, the police said.

Classes resumed at 9:50 a.m. and all after-school activities proceeded as scheduled for the rest of the day, Morelle said.

pmarcelo@projo.com