A fire at the University of Montana’s heat and power plant prompted a brief evacuation at the building Monday afternoon.
UM police distributed an emergency notification to the entire Missoula campus a little after 3:30 p.m. telling building workers to evacuate.
Pedestrians were told to stay away from the recently updated facility which sits near Washington Grizzly Stadium.
The all clear was given about a half hour later.
According to the City of Missoula Fire Department, the fire started in one of the recently-updated plant’s two boiler heating units, with heavy smoke billowing from the building.
No one was injured and the fire was quickly extinguished. Missoula Fire estimates the damage at about $30,000. Scattered power outages were reported on campus during the incident. Those were done as a precautionary measure as firefighters worked.
A UM spokesperson says the university bought power from Northwestern Energy as it brought power back online.
Separately, the university disputes a charge sought by the energy company for being a provider of standby power in case of service interruptions.
A full investigation will be conducted to determine the origin of Monday’s fire.
