ELIZABETHTON — A smoke scare on Tuesday morning at the Workforce Development Complex turned out to be caused by a malfunctioning motor, Elizabethton Fire Chief Jack Buckles said.

The 8 a.m. emergency was in the large building behind the main WDC building. The building is mainly used for classrooms for Northeast State Community College.

“They did an excellent job in evacuating the building,” Buckles said. “We began checking for the source of the smoke.”

He said one of the firefighters, David Martin, is an experienced heating and air conditioning mechanic and quickly found a motor that was causing the smoke. After determining the motor was the only source of smoke, the building was cleared and placed back in operation.