ABC cuts out as staff forced to evacuate
ABC News Breakfast was stopped midway through its broadcast on Friday morning as staff were forced to evacuate its Melbourne studios.
Host Michael Rowland said the evacuation was the result of a fire alarm.
“So, we had to evacuate the studio in the final half-hour of News Breakfast because of a fire alarm in the ABC Melbourne building.” he wrote on X, formally known as Twitter.
“Everyone is safe and the emergency is over.”
Sharing a video on social media, Mr Rowland stood beside his co-host Bridget Brennan, weather presenter Nate Byrne and news presenter Emma Rebellato outside the studio in front of a fire truck.
“So, bit of dramatic morning, we had to evacuate the studios at ABC Melbourne,” Mr Rowland said to the camera.
“We don’t think it’s serious.”
Mr Byrne agreed, stating he thought it was probably just someone’s breakfast gone awry.
“No, it smelt quite strongly of burned toast, always a risk during breakfast,” he said.
Ms Brennan urged viewers it was a timely reminder to always follow evacuation procedures, no matter how small the risk.
“We’re very grateful for the fireys who got here super quickly, we got out of the studio super quickly, as you always should in a fire alarm situation,” she said.
A firey can then be spotted giving the news presenters a thumbs up, indicating everything was fine again.
It’s understood staff were let back into the building by 11am.
