Smoke from a burned-out belt on a heating and air conditioning air compressing unit led to an hour-long evacuation of the Islip Arts Building Wednesday afternoon, officials said.
A call was placed to the Selden Fire Department, which handles fire emergencies on campus, at 12:57 p.m., just after fire alarms were triggered and everyone in the building was evacuated into 28-degree weather.
John Callari, the Public Safety lieutenant on duty, explained the smell was caused by a burned belt in one of the air compressing units, which led to the visibility of smoke and “concern.”
“All air handling units such as AC units and heating units have belts on them, and occasionally they’ll either slip, break down, or coil up creating the smell of smoke,” Callari said. “Once the smell of smoke arises, it’s an automatic — the fire alarms go off and everyone needs to evacuate.”
The building reopened at 2 p.m., but there was still a smell of smoke wafting through the first-floor halls.
English professor Elizabeth Cone arrived at school at 1:20 p.m., ahead of her 2 p.m. class. “I sat back in my car until we were let back in,” she said. She said she was able to hold her regularly scheduled class on the building’s second floor and did not smell any smoke that time.
Kyle Reimann, the captain on scene for the Selden Fire Department, described the equipment involved as “a newer air compressor,” adding, “That’s something plant operations will need to investigate and further figure out exactly what happened.”
