News, Politics, and Culture from 14895

Rauber Hill Sunrise, by Mel Hunt

County Legislators forced to evacuate mid-session due to reported electrical fire

Share:

IDA board members, legislators, and county personnel head back in the building after the smoke cleared, image provided

Alfred State President Steven Mauro was mid-speech

By Andrew Harris

We had planned to report on the substance of todays meetings in Belmont but instead a suspected electrical fire in the county building is the big news.

Legislators had worked through multiple committee meetings and began the final, Committee of the Whole meeting about 3:45pm today. One of the highlights of that meeting was to be an introduction by Dr. Steven Mauro, the new president of Alfred State College.

Mauro had introduced himself and given some back ground on his career before arriving in Alfred. Just as he was about to start talking about his work on the job in Alfred, a fire alarm sounded.

All the top brass of the county government were in the chamber, Treasurer Terri Ross, County Administrator Carissa Knapp, along with the county legislators, IDA board members: All had to leave the building.

Reports indicate that a small electrical fire had started in the basement of the building. Based on the brief time that the live stream of the legislative session was offline and reports from first responders, the matter was quickly resolved.

Allegany Fire Wire, a Facebook page dedicated to following emergency services:

“Request for Belmont Fire to respond to the county office building for a possible electrical fire in the DSS area. Belmont, Scio, Angelica dispatched.”

Shortly after that report, a follow up was posted:

“Angelica standby in Belmont’s station. Scio can stand down, situation is contained”

There have been no reports of injury or issues from the fire. The fire alarms system works as intended and first responders were on the scene almost immediately.

Dr. Mauro wasn’t able to return to the meeting.

Previous Article

Wellsville’s native son John Spicer turns 100 on June 7

Next Article

Celebration of life for Andrew “Andy” Goodliff set for June 18 in Angelica

You may also like