Texas Southmost College students, faculty and staff wait outside Tandy Hall earlier this morning after the HVAC system set off an alarm in the building .
An electrical issue related to the HVAC system in Texas Southmost College’s Tandy Hall this morning set off the safety system, which triggered the evacuation of the building.
Firefighters were on the scene and students, faculty and staff were advised to stay clear.
The issue was not life-threatening. All of the safety systems indicated that the building was safe and employees and students were allowed back into the building around 10 a.m., said Melinda Rodriguez, TSC’s acting interim president and vice president of institutional advancement and work force training.
The TSC finance department was asked to take an extended break until officials are able to determine if turning off that particular system will affect the air conditioning for the rest of the day.
“It was just a small electrical issue in the HVAC system. … It wasn’t a fire per se,” Rodriguez said. “The heating element got hot and the safety sensors go off when the temperature starts to change. It is safe. Cashiers is open, human resources is open and other offices that are up there are open. The finance staff has been asked to take a nice lunch and we’ll get back with them this afternoon and our hope is that we can get them back into their workspace by this afternoon.”
The UTRGV Vaqueros Emergency Alert System issued a “safe to re-enter” notice at 11 a.m.
–Mario Gonzalez contributed to this report.
