Correction appended
Students, faculty and staff evacuated the Ward Circle Building Tuesday afternoon when a motor on an air-handling fan burned out, causing smoke but no fire, according to Lt. Rima Sifri, crime prevention coordinator for Public Safety.
Public Safety dispatch received notification of a fire alarm activation in Ward at 12:55 p.m. When officers responded, there was smoke on the building's terrace level. At that time, Public Safety called the D.C. Fire Department, according to Sifri.
Steven Dalton, a sophomore in the School of Public Affairs, said he was in a classroom on the terrace level but didn't notice anything out of the ordinary.
"We started class when the fire bells started to ring, and everyone thought it was just a fire drill," he said. "The evacuation was orderly."
DCFD responded to the scene with tanker trucks, ladder trucks and an ambulance. Firefighters extended one of the ladders up to the building's roof as a precaution but did not end up using it, according to Sifri.
There was restricted access to the area surrounding Ward during the emergency. Sifri blocked the sidewalk and directed people to an area near Mary Graydon Center.
She said there were no injuries to any DCFD personnel, Public Safety officers or building occupants.
DCFD personnel started leaving the site at 1:45 p.m. and the last truck left at 2:05 p.m. Public Safety gave an all-clear at 2:25 p.m. for people to re-enter the building - 90 minutes after the alarm first went off.
An air-handling fan distributes heating and air conditioning to areas of a building, according to Juan Allen, chief operating engineer for Facilities Management.
"That particular unit just serves a portion of the building," Allen said. "The [motor] was replaced [Wednesday] morning."
Qiana Brandon, a junior in SPA, said during the situation that she was nervous her belongings would be stolen.
"I am very concerned about my belongings, which I left on the table," she said.
Public Safety officer Videra Washington took down information from students about what belongings they left in the building. Sifri said Public Safety had not received any reports of theft related to the evacuation.
Robbie Schwartz, a junior in SPA, said he was concerned there were no AlertDC messages about the situation.
"Do we have to have an active shooter or a large fire on campus in order to send a text message?" he said.
Sifri said there was no need to send a text alert.
"If we had to send out a text message out whenever there was a fire alarm, we would have to send out a text message every day," she said.
Aneta Samkova, a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences, said she thought Public Safety handled the situation well.
"Sifri is doing a good job," she said. "She's not causing panic."
Correction: In the photo accompanying "Motor burnout brings out DCFD," the cut line indicated that the fire was a false alarm. In fact, the alarm was real; there was smoke in the building. However, there was no fire.
