The Gainesville Civic Center had to evacuate following a small fire outside of the building at around 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday.
“We aren’t exactly sure what started everything, but we did have a small fire here,” Gainesville Parks and Recreation Director Kate Mattison said. “It ended up melting this awning and the downspout and right where we keep all our cardboard recycling.”
Mattison said as the black smoke went up into the air, they pulled the fire alarm. That led to roughly eight firetrucks by her estimate arriving on scene.
“We had an awful lot of onlookers trying to figure out what was going on,” Mattison said. “No one was hurt, everybody’s okay, everybody got out.”…