Crime & Safety
Austin Airport Evacuation Was Due To False Alarm
Travelers were evacuated on one of the busiest travel periods during Labor Day before firefighters cleared the scene and deemed it safe.
AUSTIN, TX — The Austin-Bergstrom International Airport was evacuated Monday morning — during the busy Labor Day traveling period — in what ended up being a false alarm, officials said.
Travelers took to Twitter to report on the chaos, writing about the abrupt evacuation. Austin Fire Department crews were dispatched to the scene, but found a fire alarm had been engaged in error.
"False alarm," fire officials wrote on Twitter. "Nothing found, system reset."
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Airport officials echoed the assessment in a tweet issued just before 10:30 a.m.: "The alarm at AUS that resulted in some evacuations has been canceled and all operations can resume as usual. Passengers who were evacuated are currently being re-screened through Checkpoint 1."
Ok, I just have bad travel home juju. They’re evacuating the Austin airport.
— mary fran (@maryfran) September 2, 2019
The alarm at AUS that resulted in some evacuations has been canceled and all operations can resume as usual. Passengers who were evacuated are currently being rescreened through Checkpoint 1.
— Austin-Bergstrom (@AUStinAirport) September 2, 2019
Re: Fire Alarm at ABIA terminal. False alarm, pull station activated. Nothing found, system reset. Units clearing.
— Austin Fire Info (@AustinFireInfo) September 2, 2019
Despite the good outcome, travelers weren't happy about the inconvenient evacuation. Many expressed their frustration on social media.
Find out what's happening in Austinfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
We just had to evacuate the Austin Airport and this is literally the most disorganized thing I’ve ever lived through so everyone just decided they were tired of waiting outside and walked back in #oh
— MK (@MM__Kay) September 2, 2019
@AUStinAirport being evacuated because someone pulled a fire alarm -- source: Austin Airport news number
— Milk Run (@milk_run) September 2, 2019
Hey @AUStinAirport what’s going on?? pic.twitter.com/di30W5YpTk
— katie (@melonsnack) September 2, 2019
WTF... Real time @ Austin Airport#emergencyalert https://t.co/yVZZWVoZXg
— LibertE Mom (@LibertEendfed) September 2, 2019
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