Stubbs Hall experienced a fire scare last week after smoke was reported inside the building.

At approximately 6 p.m. on Aug. 21, students and faculty evacuated Stubbs Hall as several fire trucks arrived on the scene. After investigation, he incident turned out not to be a fire, but an overheated motor in an air unit that had begun to create smoke throughout the building according to Interim Fire Chief Terry Williams.

Firefighters were able to move the smoke out of the building within an hour. According to Williams there was minimal damage.

Joshua Stockley, a political science and sociology professor, was in his office on the first floor of Stubbs when he smelled smoke.

“I poked my head out and there was smoke coming down from one end of the hallway. I yelled to John [Sutherlin] ‘hey you might want to come into the hallway, I need to see if I’m just seeing things or what,’” Stockley said.

Stockley opened the doors while Sutherlin called the campus police.

“I was nervous because Walker Hall had recently had a fire accident, but I wouldn’t say I was freaking out,” said Stockley. “I was headed to class and I thought there was nothing I could really do about it anyway. I grabbed my syllabus and my bag, then went to teach my class.”

Senior mass communication major Lindsay Bruyninckx was in her video production class when a police officer interrupted and escorted them out of the building.

“My initial reaction was, ‘is this really happening? I guess there is no fire alarm.’ I’m glad that the police officer got us out of the building. I just hoped that the building wasn’t going to close down like Admin did,” Bruyninckx said.

Many students stood by taking photos of the firefighters as they prepared to enter the building and climbed on the roof to assess any potential damage. Although the video production class was then cancelled for the day, the building was safe to enter soon after evacuation.