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After inspecting Castetter Hall on Wednesday morning, police and fire personnel found that the incident was a false alarm.
UNM Police Department Operations Lieutenant Trace Peck said the department responded to the incident after getting a call about a possible blaze in the building.
“We got a call referencing smoke in the north portion of the building,” he said. “We responded along with the Albuquerque Fire Department. It was just an issue with the engine of one of the elevators located in that area.”
Peck said one of the fire alarms in the building was set off by smoke coming from an overheating elevator motor. He said no one was harmed in the incident and that the overheating did not do any damage to the building.
Still, UNMPD had to play it safe, Peck said.
“When a fire alarm goes off in one building, everyone is evacuated out of that building. You never know if it’s a good alarm or a bad alarm, so we treat every alarm the same.”
According to an email alert sent out by UNMPD, the situation was stabilized at 9:48 a.m., and all building activity was resumed.
Peck said that the Physical Plant Department was working on repairing the elevator.
