There was a fire scare at a Walmart in Clayton, but it turns out it wasn’t a fire at all. Firefighters said the smoke that filled the store’s vision center and forced the evacuation of shoppers was instead caused by dust from heating and cooling equipment.
Rabun County E-911 dispatched firefighters to the store located at 1455 Route 441 South on Monday, October 23 at 4:51 p.m.
Rabun Dispatch reported that the Walmart Vision Center was beginning to fill with smoke and the store was being evacuated.
Firefighters arrived and found shoppers outside in the parking lot, but no fire or smoke was visible from the building. When they entered the vision center, they saw “a faint smoke” and smelled what could be an electrical fire.
“Using thermal imaging and opening the drop ceiling, we found that there was no heat or fire in the area directly above the center,” said Rabun County Deputy Fire Chief Justin Upchurch. Masu.
Dusty air conditioning equipment
Firefighters went to the roof and inspected the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) unit located directly above the vision center. There he was met by an HVAC maintenance worker. He told them he had just replaced a fuse in a vision center unit that had not been used for some time.
“It was smoke caused by dust burning off the heat strip in the HVAC unit. However, there was no fire,” Upchurch said.
Firefighters inspected the unit with thermal imaging equipment and notified management that nothing was wrong. The store reopened after a while.
Upchurch credits the store manager for conducting an orderly evacuation.