Hale Center Update

UPDATE: Police Chief Randy Mink clarified and confirmed in a statement that at 8:22 p.m. last night both campus police and the Moon fire department were alerted of smoke inside the Hale Center on campus.

“We’ve come to the conclusion that is was some mechanical stuff done on the roof yesterday and one of the pieces of equipment kicked on and burned a little bit of oil. There was no actual fire, there was no actual damage to anything. [Once] the oil burned off it stopped. The fire department responded because the fire alarm was actually pulled in the building and everything was cleared without any incident,” said Chief Mink.

When questioned why an alert was not sent out to the few early arrival students on campus, Chief Mink said “The reason no alert was put out was because it was contained very quickly, there was no danger to any student at the time and actually in reality there were no classes going on, so really there was no necessity for the alert.”

He clarified that situations that call for an alert are usually defined as severe emergencies, including circumstances such as active shooters, gas leaks, bomb threats, and actual fires.

There was no damage done to the Hale Center and no injuries to report.