Baltimore Comic-Con was Evacuated
[Above: Don Rosa (Uncle Scrooge) stands amongst the thousands of evacuees]
At around 11 a.m. this morning, fire alarms sounded at the convention center in Baltimore forcing a technology convention and the Comic-Con to evacuate.
At the time the alarm went off I was at the Image booth waiting to talk to Erik Larsen (see previous post) when I noticed that the fire emergency lights on the ceiling were flashing. An announcement soon came over the P.A. system saying that they were evacuating the building and that everyone must leave. 
[Above: Scott Kurtz (PvP) right before the evacuation happened]
Scott Kurtz and Larsen were talking about how they have never seen fire alarms go off at a convention before, nor have they ever had to evacuate from a convention.
“If I’m going to die at least I’ll be taken out at a convention,” Larson said to Kurtz while signing an autograph for the last person waiting in his line.
Looking around the showroom, it was clear a lot of the people with booths were confused about what to do. They didn’t want to leave their stuff because they were worried someone would get back first and take it. So some were doing their best to hide all their items or they stacked up everything they could and took it outside with them.
Some of the other Image people were laying t-shirts over their books, while others were putting books and graphic novels on the floor.
Since I had a press pass and knew I technically didn’t have to leave unless a police officer told me to do so, I waited until I was the last one to leave. Because I was the last person to leave (other than two convention staff members who were yelling at me to evacuate) I got some really cool photos. Everyone was standing outside the glass windows of the completely empty lobby. I mean thousands of people just standing outside. I can’t wait to get my film developed to see how they turned out.
After about 25 to 30 minutes, people were allowed back into the convention. I sent an email to one of the guys in charge of convention and left a voice mail for the conventions PR person. Hopefully they’ll get back to me and let me know what happened.
Updated:
I got a call back from a friend who works at Camden Yards. He told me that a sprinkler went off in the right half of the convention center, where a technology convention was happening. Alarms automatically went off and then the fire department had to come turn off the water.
[Below: Tons of fire trucks showed up]