Dozens of firefighters responded. What set off alarms in an uptown Wells Fargo tower?
A Wells Fargo tower in uptown Charlotte is closed after a top-floor water leak on Tuesday stalled elevators and triggered smoke alarms, a bank spokesman said.
Firefighters were at the 51-story building at 550 S Tryon St., formerly the Duke Energy Center, by 8 p.m. Monday, according to the Charlotte Fire Department and Wells Fargo spokesperson Josh Dunn.
The bank-owned building sits adjacent to the Levine Center for the Arts — marked by Charlotte’s sparkling “The Firebird” statue.
After closing parts of South Tryon Street and West Brooklyn Village Avenue, 40 firefighters controlled the incident within an hour and a half, the department said on Twitter.
The bank and firefighters did not share how many people were evacuated or how many remained in the building after elevators broke down and smoke from the 47th-floor electrical outage set off fire alarms.
While Wells Fargo said nobody was physically injured, firefighters found one patient on a top floor. Paramedics treated and released the patient, according to the department.
Wells Fargo recently renovated 21 floors at 550 S Tryon St. in anticipation of workers moving in from other uptown buildings. The San Francisco-based bank has its largest employment hub in Charlotte, with about 27,000 workers here.
The building was expected to remain closed while authorities investigated the incident, Dunn said.
This story was originally published July 11, 2023 at 11:33 AM.
