Stieglitz bushfire not enough to stop students and teachers from holding year 10 formal

As a bushfire took off at Stieglitz on Tasmania's upper east coast, grade 10 students watched as their formal venue got caught up in the road closures and power outages.

The fire between Stieglitz and Dianas Basin has burnt more than 1,300 hectares of land, destroyed two houses and forced residents to evacuate.

The leavers' dinner for St Helens District High School was due to be held on Thursday night at Parkside Bar but with the venue cut off, the school community had to come up with another plan for the 65 students and staff.

With under 48 hours to go and the fire emergency continuing on Wednesday, they shifted to the school's general purpose room.

The original supplies for the event were also unreachable, so decorations and tables were pulled together from the community, along with food and drinks from local restaurants to match the original menu.

Local fish shop Skippers opened up especially to cook a bulk order of chips and fresh fish, while the Bays Kitchen looked after dessert.

The school's hospitality teachers cooked up dishes and other school staff waited tables.

Principal Anita Haley said even the police helped out, assisting in getting evacuated students access to their formal wear from cut-off homes at Stieglitz.

"We had organised alternative suits for the boys who couldn't get back but they wanted to wear their own and we were able to put those parents in contact with someone who could legally get them to Stieglitz to get their suits," she said.

Ms Haley said the school wanted to do whatever it could to keep the event going.

"I knew we had a team of people who were really quickly knocking on doors and saying, 'What can we do to help, we want to make this happen for our community.'"

Some students arrived in vintage cars and paraded them in a lap around the oval.

Another, Rory Alexander, came by boat from the fire-affected area.

The room was decked out with lights and flowers.

"Some came from our local garden club, which brought in bouquets, which was pretty amazing," Ms Haley said.

"[We] had another staff member who was in Hobart and she raided some pretty spectacular blooms from her mother's garden, so a great effort from lots of people.

Jasmine Griffin works as a waitress at the original venue for the formal.

When the plans were forced to change, she volunteered to help out her former school at the new location.

"[The students] were just so ecstatic that we were able to pull it all together in such a short amount of time and they didn't have to sacrifice the joy that the leavers' dinner does bring to everyone because of what had happened," she said.

Ms Griffin said it was great not to have to miss out on such an important event for the town.

"After grade 10, we all move everywhere, we go to Launceston, Hobart, some stay here, so it's one of the last times you spend with your grade who you're with for sometimes 13 years at St Helens, so it's such an important event for the community."

Ms Griffin said by the end of the event, all the helpers were "pooped".

"All the kids left by about 9:30, 10ish and we just went to bed very quickly," she said.