By Samuel Rubenfeld
With sirens blaring and lights flashing, firefighters were called to Monroe Lecture Hall Wednesday evening to address reported smoke billowing through the main auditorium.
A motor malfunctioned within the building and began to release smoke into the lecture hall, said a public safety officer who would only speak on the condition of anonymity.
Choir students were in a classroom rehearsing for their “Collegium Musicum” when they smelled something, said Matthew Koraus, a junior music theory major present in the classroom.
About thirty students were in the classroom rehearsing.
One student said the smoke smelled like car brakes slammed too hard.
Koraus walked downstairs to investigate. “You could see very clearly that there was some sort of gas in there,” he said.
After determining there was gas or fumes in the air, Koraus walked back upstairs and suggested to the other students that everyone evacuate the building.
One called Public Safety, Koraus said, and the officer who approached the scene pulled the fire alarm.
Two fire engines and a fire department SUV pulled up next to Weller Hall directly across the street from Monroe.
A student said she saw a firefighter kneeling next to a hydrant she passed by. The street and the sidewalk surrounding the hydrant were both wet, the passing student added.

Public Safety and the Uniondale Fire Department investigate the origin of smoke coming from Monroe Lecture Hall on California Ave. Wednesday.