On Wednesday, reports of smoke in the Abelson-Bass-Yalem physics building led to the evacuation of the building, according to a community-wide email sent by Vice President for Operations Jim Gray.

The email stated that the physics building and the surrounding buildings were evacuated at approximately 9:30 on Wednesday morning. In an email to the Justice, Gray wrote that students on the third floor of the building noticed the smoke and called campus police to report it. Immediately after, the fire alarm was activated and the Waltham fire and police departments were called to campus to investigate. The departments reported that “a piece of equipment in a mechanical room serving the physics building” caused the smoke.

Gray detailed that the piece of equipment was an air-handling unit and that “grease on one of the unit’s bearings over-heated” and caused the smoke. Because the problem occurred in an air unit, the smoke was quickly distributed throughout the building.

Gray wrote that the University is “sorry for the inconvenience this incident caused to many faculty, students and staff,” and noted that while nothing of this nature has occurred on campus recently, it is not an uncommon problem for mechanical parts to overheat. Gray reported that the bearing that overheated will be replaced, but the air unit itself remains in working condition and will not be removed or replaced.

According to the email sent out to the community, no one was injured during the incident and the fire department soon declared the building safe.

—Rachel Sharer