Smoke was briefly visible Wednesday morning over the roof of the Raleigh Convention Center, just days after a fire there did $2 million in damage and forced events to postpone.
The plume was visible for about 10 minutes just before noon, and the building was evacuated.
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City spokeswoman Julia Milstead said work to repair the boiler after Monday night's fire pushed some steam out.
Monday night's fire was reported around 9:30 p.m. and burned for about 25 minutes, according to Raleigh Fire Chief Herbert Griffin said.
City of Raleigh Julia Milstead said security officers were inside the convention center at time the fire broke out, but they were able to quickly get out of the building.
Griffin estimated that the damage to the roof would amount to about $2 million.
He added that the timing -- late in the evening -- was fortuitous in that firefighters were able to focus on containing the blaze and not worry about getting people out of the building safely.
The fire started with a gas leak, Griffin said. It was contained to the roof, but there was additional water damage inside the building.
On Tuesday, city of Raleigh officials said the cleanup was underway inside and outside the convention center.
Events scheduled for early December had to be postponed, canceled or moved while repairs are taking place.
The general manager of Rocky Mount Event Center, David Joyner, said he'd had some preliminary conversations with organizers who have events planned at the Raleigh Convention Center. Rocky Mount, with a capacity of 5,000, is prepared to host those events if needed.
"The Raleigh Convention Center deserves to have the events that they have booked, but we ultimately want these people to stay in North Carolina, and so we want to be there to support them and help them in any way we can," Joyner said.
WRAL reached out to managers of the Greenville Convention Center and Crowne Center in Fayetteville. Neither has received requests from any of the event organizers to move their events, but they said they'd be willing to help if anyone reaches out.
According to Raleigh Mayor Janet Cowell, temporary roofing will be installed at the convention center to prevent further water damage. Cowell added that it is still in the reviewing phase and they will need "some time to get this reopened to the public on a normal basis."
"This is getting a little more complex, there are a lot of moving parts," Cowell said.
Future of events unclear at Raleigh Convention Center
City of Raleigh building engineers began looking at the damage to the roof on Tuesday. They will assess the structure to determine when it is safe again for use.
No events were happening at the center at the time.
Cowell called the convention center an "important civic asset" and said, "I hope we can repair damage and have it back functioning normally as soon as possible."
"I will be interested to know how fast we can get this up and running," Cowell said.
