The McCreary Community Building was evacuated about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday when smoke was seen in the vicinity of the weight room.
“The drive coupler on their chilled water circulating pump broke,” according to Perry Volunteer Fire Department Assistant Fire Chief Kevin McLaughlin, incident commander. “It’s a rubber coupling, so with the pump motor spinning and that thing just going ’round and ’round, it was like burning rubber, and it generated some smoke.”
There were no injuries in the incident, and McLaughlin said there was no damage to the building.
“The building’s fine,” he said. “It just kind of filled their mechanical room with burnt-rubber smoke, so we opened the doors and vented it out. Now it’s just a matter of them replacing the drive coupler.”
The Perry Police Department, Perry First Responders, Perry Volunteer Fire Department and Dallas County EMS responded to the incident.
Sure is interesting that there was nothing about this on our local radio station.