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Tuesday afternoon at 2:19 pm, Franklin Fire Department and Centerville Volunteer Fire Department were dispatched to the St Mary Parish Courthouse for a possible fire on the 7th floor.
Franklin Fire Department personnel quickly arrived on scene as the courthouse was being evacuated, and learned that maintenance staff had located smoke in one of the former jail cell blocks on the 7th floor, which activated the fire alarm.
Fire crews arrived on the 7th floor and located two light fixtures that had shorted out and started to burn inside the housings. Power to the affected lights was shut off and smoke was cleared from the 7th floor. Courthouse employees were then allowed back into the building for normal operations.
Franklin Fire Chief Chuck Bourgeois would like the stress to the public to refrain from standing in roadways or walking out in front of a responding fire apparatus as it slows responses to emergencies.