St. Lawrence Seaway offices evacuated

Employees from the St. Lawrence Seaway head office wait in the courtyard on Pitt Street Monday, June 20, 2016 after the building was evacuated due to a hazy smoke on the eighth floor. The fire department believes workers maintaining the HVAC system may have caused the problem. (Newswatch Group/Bill Kingston)

CORNWALL – Scores of employees at The St. Lawrence Seaway building were forced from their air-conditioned offices into the blistering heat Monday afternoon after a fire alarm.

It happened around 2:10 p.m. at the seaway’s head office on the northwest corner of Pitt and Second Streets (202 Pitt Street).

Workers were milling around the courtyard to the north of the building while firefighters searched for the cause of some smoke on the eighth floor.

Andrew Bogora, communications officer with the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation, said employees from CIBC, the Great Lakes Pilotage Authority on the second floor and the seaway corporation on floors three and up were evacuated as a precaution.

An employee pulled the fire alarm after noticing smoke on the eighth floor, Bogora said.

Cornwall Fire Department Platoon Chief Rob Cotnam told Cornwall Newswatch there was a “haze” on the floor. It’s believed some workers were maintaining the HVAC system at the time.

After the fire department reset the alarms, workers were given the all-clear to return.