Engineer Hall fan overheats, causes smoke scare

Madison Fire Department officials were dispatched to Engineering Hall Tuesday for reports of smoke coming out of the west end of the building. When they arrived, no one in the building was evacuating and no alarms were going off.

“Firefighters noted light white wisps of smoke as they entered the building to investigate,” MFD Public Information Officer Cynthia Schuster wrote in a daily report. “The source was found in the plasma processing technology lab, where a thermal imaging camera indicated an exhaust fan overheated.”

Firefighters stood near the fan as its temperature dropped and smoke production stopped after it was unplugged. The lab was shut down during the incident, but there was no damage.