By Shereen Siewert
The Marathon County Courthouse was evacuated Thursday during a board meeting after an unidentified person pulled the fire alarm.
The alarm was pulled just after the first public speaker of the night took the podium, at about 7:10 p.m. The county board was set to discuss a proposal to declare June “Pride Month,” a measure that has drawn mixed reaction from members of the public.
The courthouse was evacuated until the Wausau Fire Department could clear the scene and determined there was no danger to anyone inside the building. It is not clear whether the false alarm was connected to the meeting.
Initial scanner reports indicated a hazy smoke near where the alarm was pulled, on the first floor of the Marathon County Jail’s ground floor cleaning supply area. Emergency crews responding detected the smell of smoke but no flames were discovered.
The meeting resumed at about 7:35 p.m., after each person was re-screened by courthouse security, according to a Tweet from Dist. 1 Rep. Katie Rosenberg.
