Smoke from a diesel motor raises concern at Tulsa's BOK tower

A dramatic scene in downtown Tulsa, as smoke poured from atop the BOK tower Saturday evening. <br><br>Tulsa firefighters climbed 52 flights of stairs to investigate, only to find a smoking diesel generator.

Sunday, May 26th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

A dramatic scene in downtown Tulsa, as smoke poured from atop the BOK tower Saturday evening.

Tulsa firefighters climbed 52 flights of stairs to investigate, only to find a smoking diesel generator. Maintenance workers were doing a routine monthly check on the generators, but aren't sure what made them smoke.

It all turned out to be a false alarm, but fire officials wanted to be on the safe side. Even experienced firefighters weren't sure. Tulsa Fire Captain Dannie Caldwell, "Its rather odd for us, I've been down here for over 15 years and I've never seen the smoke come from a generator like that. But just for precaution we sent the crews up to investigate, set up staging areas, things like that. And it was a false call thank goodness."

The incident looked a lot worse than it was, for high-rise fires they have to call in four to six times more manpower.