UPDATE: Smoking Light Spurred LCE's Evacuation

The kids at had an unexpected fire drill Friday when administrators evacuated everyone due to a strong smell of smoke.

No fire was found; the culprit was a flourescent light whose ballast began to melt, said Battalion Chief Mario DeFina. The ballast is the square box inside the "brain'' of the light and when it overheats and melts, it emits a smell like burning oil or tar, he said.

Firefighters from Station 82 and examined the area and deemed it safe - but school maintenance will have to replace the light, he added.

The evacuation occurred just before the early bird dismissal at 1:55 p.m., causing parents, lined in their cars waiting to pick up their children, to wonder what was happening.

"I wasn't alarmed because I saw the office administrator's face and she wasn't alarmed,'' said Jill Weinlein, whose daughter attends first grade.

deputies allowed waiting parents to leave with children before other traffic could chug up Encinas Drive.

Weinlein waited in front of the school, walking past emergency vehicles to tell concerned parents the upshot of the ruckus: everyone was fine. School officials corraled everyone into the recess area while authorities inspected the property, Weinlein said, adding the smoke smell was first detected in the computer lab.

The faculty portrayed the event as a fire drill, and led the children to the side of the school so as not to alarm them, Weinlein said.

When she first approached the school, she saw the white emergency light flashing and was a bit alarmed.

"It was a little scary to see all the fire engines. But that's the beauty of La Cañada - multiple police and firefighters to handle any situation,'' she said, noting the quick emergency response is a perk of living in La Cañada.