The Wells Fargo building on the Downtown Mall was evacuated around lunch time Monday because of smoke on the seventh floor. A locked-up motor in a mechanical room on that floor caused the alarm, according to Charlottesville Fire Department Battalion Chief W. A. Hogsten. Even though the ladder truck was extended to the top floor, Hogsten didn’t think the smoke would be any big deal.
“We do smells and bells all the time,” he said. And indeed, by the time the lunch hour was over, fire trucks had departed the mall.
The former Wachovia/Jefferson Bank building has been evacuated before. Pin oak leaves have been known to fall into the wells beside the building and catch fire when a cigarette is tossed in, said Hogsten. In December 2011, a sewage backup emptied the building until the fire department decided the odor was not hazardous, and in April 2010, a small blaze behind the building caused another evacuation.