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LAS CRUCES - Sometimes, when there's smoke, there is no fire.
Fortunately, that was the case Thursday after Las Cruces and New Mexico State University fire crews swarmed Jett Hall on the NMSU campus after two classrooms filled with smoke.
Mechanical engineering student Tanner Cooper said when his class convened at 11:45 a.m., they could smell something like a fan belt overheating, but didn't think much of it until leaving the classroom and returning around a half an hour later. The burning rubber smell had turned into gray smoke, he said.
"Our room, where we'd left our backpacks, was full of smoke," said Cooper, 19. "We walked out the doors and, right about that time, the fire alarms went off."
Class, he added, "was over anyway, but it was canceled."
NMSU Fire Chief Darrell Smith said after receiving the call at 12:18 p.m., crews were on scene within four minutes.
The building was evacuated, leaving hundreds of students to gather on the grass of the NMSU Horseshoe, and by 1:30 p.m., firefighters found the source of the smoke - a burned out air ventilation coil.
"It's just a lot of smoke," Smith said, fire alarms chirping in the background.
NMSU sent e-mail and text message alerts through its emergency notification system asking the public to avoid the area. Another message was sent about 30 minutes later, after the scene was cleared.
Classes returned to normal by 2 p.m. Thursday and university technicians began repairs that afternoon. No other damage was
Ashley Meeks can be reached at (575) 541-5400.
