A tripped electrical breaker brought fire officials to Stevenson Towers North on Monday afternoon.

Pete Blair, DeKalb Fire Department chief, said an electrical breaker was tripped in the 13th floor electrical control room, causing an emergency brake to be set on the elevator in C Tower.

No one was in the elevator at the time of the incident. The brake caused smoke to fill the penthouse control room, resulting in emergency calls to fire and police departments.

A call went in at 12:50 p.m., Blair said. Because many DeKalb firefighters were handling another problem at the time, Sycamore authorities also were called to the scene, but called off before they could arrive.

After the cause of the smoke was determined, authorities had the physical plant make sure it was safe.

All police and fire units were back in service 50 minutes later at 1:40 p.m.

The elevator is safe to use, but has been shut down until a necessary brake coil arrives said Octavio Murillo, elevator serviceman for the physical plant.

“The brake is pushed down,” Murillo said. “It would be like driving your car with the brake pressed down.”

This is the second time in a week that authorities had to be called to Stevenson Towers for problems with their elevators, University Police Crpl. Robert Cannon said.