A smoking grill led administrators to evacuate Liverpool High School for 17 minutes this morning, according to Liverpool Central School District Superintendent Dr. Richard Johns.

A fire alarm and smoky smell sent students outside a little after 10:30 a.m. Friday. Head Principal Tony Davis called the district office to report that a grill in the cafeteria had started smoking, setting off the alarm, Johns said.

“It never started on fire,” Johns said. “It set of the detectors and they had to evacuate. But it was never out of control.”

Students were outside for a total of 17 minutes, Johns said. Those students who were pulled from the swimming pool were immediately moved to the Liverpool High School Annex.

“We do have Wetzel Road sitting vacant right now, so we were keeping an eye out to see if we needed to move kids into Wetzel,” Johns said. “But it never got to that point.”

Johns said the fire department gave Davis the OK to allow students back into the building. At that point, classes resumed as usual.