Overheated escalator motor source of Alderwood store’s smoke

Published 10:52 pm Tuesday, January 19, 2010

LYNNWOOD — An overheated escalator motor caused the smoke that led to a precautionary evacuation at an Alderwood mall department store on Monday afternoon.

Firefighters about noon evacuated customers from JC Penney for more than an hour while they looked for the source of the smoke, Lynnwood Fire Marshal LeRoy McNulty said. There was no fire.

Investigators later learned the cause of the smoke was an escalator motor, said Jerry Alder, the mall’s general manager.