The Gainesville Student Center was evacuated for a short time on Thursday, Jan. 25, due to a false alarm of a fire in the building.

Police and firefighters were on the scene, swept the building, and reportedly let students and faculty back into the center shortly afterwards.

According to Gregory Hudgison, Associate Vice President for Communications and Marketing on the Dahlonega campus, the alarm was accidentally triggered somewhere within the building, although he was unsure where.

Sebastian Gonzalez, a student present during the time of the fire, said he was with friends at UNG’s “Nighthawks Arcade” event when the alarm went off.

“At first I thought it was some kind of prize [alarm], but no. They evacuated us after that.”- Sebastian Gonzalez, UNG Student

The arcade event ran from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in room 0003, with direct access from the lobby.

Gonzalez added that many people thought the alarm might have been triggered by the kitchen, where the first responders immediately visited upon arrival.

Joy Duelfer, a faculty member cashiering in the kitchen at the time of the alarm, said that the alarm was actually triggered somewhere down the hall from the kitchen.

Duelfer clarified that the first responders did check the kitchen first while the building was evacuated but went down the hall later on.

This false alarm echoes similar incidents in the past years at UNG Gainesville. The last time a fire alarm was reported was Nov. 30 in the Martha T. Nesbitt Academic Building. At another point during the semester, a fire alarm was triggered in the Hugh Mills Fitness Center.