City Hall Council Chambers Evacuated During Live Meeting

MANHATTAN BEACH, CA — During its live meeting tonight, the Manhattan Beach City Council meeting was interrupted by City Manager Bruce Moe who said there was smoke at city hall and anyone at city hall needed to leave the building. The meeting was placed on a hold.

Mayor Richard Montgomery was at city hall during the live Zoom and online stream/webcast and said he was going to evacuate. After a brief pause of perhaps 10 minutes, Montgomery returned to Council Chambers and took his mayor's seat to continue the meeting. Nothing was said except that everything was OK and the city council meeting continued.

City Manager Moe later told Manhattan Beach Patch that the city's senior deputy city clerk "advised me via text that there was the smell of smoke in the Council Chambers, and that the Fire Department was dispatched. When I saw that, I interrupted the Mayor to stop the meeting and evacuate City staff on site at the Council Chambers who are there to run the virtual meeting through the cable system. The Mayor was also at City Hall for the meeting and was briefly evacuated. There was no fire at City Hall and it appeared that the smoke smell was coming from an external source."