photo by: Richard Gwin

The main entrance on the south side of Cordley Elementary School is shown in this photo from September 2015.

A fire alarm at Cordley Elementary School this morning caused about an hour-long evacuation of the school, 1837 Vermont St.

The alarm sounded after a sprinkler in the school’s kitchen went off, according to district spokeswoman Julie Boyle. Boyle said there was no fire, and that it appears that one of the sprinklers in the kitchen may have malfunctioned or was activated by steam from an oven.

Firefighters with Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical responded to the alarm about 10:15 a.m. this morning, and Boyle said students were able to reenter the building shortly after 11 a.m. There was no water damage in the school’s kitchen owing to the sprinklers, she said.

Parents of students at the school were notified of the evacuation. Cordley is attended by about 275 students in kindergarten through fifth grade, and the regular lunch menu couldn’t be prepared for the day. Boyle said kitchen staff prepared brown bag lunches to be served in the cafeteria.