AUGUSTA — The Augusta City Hall was unexpectedly closed late Tuesday afternoon after employees complained about smelling a possible gas leak upon entering the building, officials said.

The Augusta Fire Department responded to the complaint after a call came in around 3 p.m. More than 20 people were in the building when the fire department evacuate it. Battalion Chief Brian Chamberlin said that his team used gas monitors to assess the situation.

“We went in and took readings in the building and got some abnormal readings,” said Chamberlin. “We then called in the Summit Natural Gas, who then checked the building but were unable to locate an actual leak. We are unsure at the time what caused the elevated readings but we suspect an air duct was involved.”

The Fire Department and Summit Natural Gas were on the scene for over an hour and took multiple readings in the building to locate a source of the potential leak. Later, after restarting all the systems, the smell and the elevated readings were no longer present and the premises were declared safe and no injuries were reported.

The scare forced the evacuation of City Hall, and subsequently, the cancellation of the Rental Regulation Task Force Meeting scheduled for 5 p.m.

Officials later posted an update on social media: “City Hall will reopen tomorrow morning for normal business hours. Thanks for your patience while we worked to ensure the safety of the public and City employees.”

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