Firefighters evacuate Manatee School board building during meeting
The Manatee County School Board building had to be evacuated during the board’s Tuesday night meeting over apparent fumes coming from a computer system. The meeting was effectively canceled.
The City of Bradenton Fire Rescue responded on a call of an odor around 7:45 p.m. at the county’s school board building at 215 Manatee Ave W.
Fire crews said they evacuated the building as a precaution and are searching the third floor for a possible malfunction in a computer battery backup system.
“There’s problems in our server room. We had some of our IT people in there working during the board meeting. They smelled a foul odor and determined it was coming from the server room,” Manatee County School District spokesman Mike Barber said.
The workers called the fire department once they realized how dangerous it could turn out to be, he said.
Fire officials believe the smell may have resulted from a sulfuric acid battery leak, Barber said.
“Our understanding is, at least at this point, the building will not be able to be used tomorrow, and it will be closed at least until tomorrow morning,” Barber said.
He said he plans to send a notice to district employees about the closure, and they will likely be relocated to other offices tomorrow.
About 180 people usually work in the building.
This story was originally published August 14, 2018 at 8:38 PM.