There was an emergency evacuation because of an electrical vault problem outside the Technological Institute Monday.

University Police, the Evanston Fire Department and the Evanston Police Department arrived on the scene and Tech, the Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center and the Center for Catalysis and Surface Science were evacuated. An emergency alert was sent out to Northwestern students and employees around 2:16 p.m. The alert said no one was injured in the incident.

Students sat on the opposite side of the road in front of the buildings after the evacuation while waiting to go back in. Charles Collett, a physics graduate student stood under a tree with other students during the evacuation. Collett said he was doing lab work in the Tech when he heard people talking about the fire alarm going off in Ford.

“From what I heard, a transformer was overheating,” he said.

By 4:44 p.m. Monday, the emergency alert system said people could safely return to the three evacuated buildings, with the exception of the south moat in Tech.

– Julianna Nunez