Fire alarm prompts evacuation of ABIA

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Austin-Bergstrom International Airport was evacuated at 1:20 p.m. Tuesday after the fire alarm was triggered during routine maintenance of the alarm system.

Airport staff said the cause was identified within 10 minutes and everyone was allowed back in the terminal by 1:41 p.m.

"Some of the passengers had to go through security all over again," ABIA spokesman Jim Halbrook said.  "Some of them evacuated into areas that did not require re-entry through security. They stayed  with badged personnel the whole way."

Airport staff said full terminal evacuations are rare, but most staff go through evacuation training scenarios up to twice a year.

"Fortunately it happened at a time of day when we were past our noon peak, so it wasn’t like peak traffic was involved in this procedure today," Halbrook added.

Airlines held flights for nearly 30 minutes for passengers who had to evacuate.

"In years past we’ve had to do this before under different kind of alarms," he said. "The TSA is really good about processing people and getting all their staff back up and moving people back through security lines quickly."