A computer lab was evacuated late seventh period on Friday. The definitive cause is unknown, but several theories have arisen from those in the room as it happened.

“It was like a battery that heated and was leaking. People were having trouble breathing,” Mack Gore, junior, said.

The common theme across all who experienced it was a burning sensation.

“I took a deep breath and it started burning my throat so I had to get to the back of the classroom,” Gore said.

Initially, some students noticed and notified those around them.

“About 20 minutes from the bell ringing on Friday, a couple girls got up and were saying, ‘what is that?’” Ashley Krause, English teacher, said. “There was no smell to it or anything, but everyone felt the burning.”

Some students, upon exiting the building, could feel it from the hallway outside the room. Paramedics and other emergency assistance arrived shortly after. There was also mention among several students of possible pepper spray, but no evidence of that was found.

“The fire department came in with their readers and found no reading of anything. It was odorless, colorless, and they found no trace of it with their equipment,” Dave Stephens, principal, said.

The official explanation given by the administration was that a fan inside one of the computers died, and it resulted in what Stephens “would compare to an electrical fire,” although there was no actual fire.

“Over the 25 years of computers being here, this is the first time I’ve even heard of it. It’s like a UFO,” Stephens said.