Photo: Randy Millis

UPDATE 3:55 p.m.

Kelowna Fire Department Platoon Capt. Shayne Kiehlbauch tells Castanet that one of the motors in an HVAC unit at the school seized up and sent smoke and the smell of burning rubber into a classroom.

"It never did trigger the alarm, one of the teachers pulled the alarm when she saw the smoke but it turned out to be fairly minor."

Kiehlbauch says the school did an excellent job of getting the students out of the building, "we got it sorted fairly quick."

ORIGINAL 3:27 p.m.

Rutland Secondary School had to be evacuated Thursday afternoon just before 3 p.m. after the Kelowna Fire Department received a report of smoke filling up a room.

Fire crews attended the scene and cordoned off an area around the school located in the 700-block of Rutland Rd.

Firefighters have gone through the building to determine the cause of the alarm. There appears to have been a problem with one of the school's HVAC systems which may have caused smoke to spread.

Students were forced to wait outside while fire crews worked to find the cause of the alarm.

It appears that the source of the situation has been identified and taken care of.