Students and staff were forced to evacuate IC Building on Thursday due to a false alarm triggered by construction, according to Dean Brock Felchle.

“We believe it was what the construction crew indicated was dirty smoke,” Felchle said. “So it had to do with a construction that was going on, there was no actual fire. The system said dirty smoke, but there was no actual smoke anywhere that was visible or anything like that.”

Felchle estimated that students were only out of the building for around seven minutes. The alarm was triggered near the end of fourth period, disrupting the last few minutes of class. Students and staff evacuated to parking lots outside. People were allowed back into the building around the beginning of fifth period.

Part of Felchle’s job was getting the alarm off and the situation under control. “I was working with the construction company on getting the alarm shut off and making sure the building was secured before we came back,” he said.

The construction on the IC innovation space, which is expected to be finished soon, has disrupted electrical and fire systems in the building. According to Felchle, false alarms have been triggered before.

“They had some issues with the alarms over the summer, while they were doing construction with the electrical system and all that,” Felchle said. “But not since we’ve been back in school.”