By BETHANY SHERROW
News Editor

(WARRENSBURG, Mo., digitalBURG) — A power outage Monday night caused some Warrensburg residents to miss part of the presidential debate, and some UCM students to evacuate Ellis Complex.

Rebecca Galati, a KCP&L spokeswoman, said the outage started at 9:14 p.m. and lasted until 9:54 p.m. She said the outage was caused by a raccoon in a substation and affected 2,910 Warrensburg residents.

UCM students in Ellis were evacuated when the complex lost power.

The fire alarm system was sounding, and rumors about a grease fire in Ellis Dining Hall circulated campus.

Patrick Bradley, senior director of University Housing and Residential Dining Services, said the rumors were false.

“There was no grease fire, nothing like that,” he said.

Bradley said when the complex lost electricity, the dining center grill’s exhaust fan stopped venting smoke which set off the fire alarm. Bradley said dining center workers followed normal protocol when emergency lights came on around 9:15 p.m., and everyone evacuated the dining hall.

“It was the smoke buildup that set off the fire alarm system,” Bradley said.

Billie Maloney, a community advisor in the complex, said the whole complex was evacuated for everyone’s protection.

“We were outside for quite a while because of how much smoke there was,” Maloney said.

Bradley said students were allowed back into the complex around 10 p.m. when electricity was restored.