Dust in the building’s duct system is to blame for a fire alarm sounding at the new Ironton High School early Tuesday morning.

The false alarm occurred around 3:30 a.m.

“It was due to a dust detector within the duct system,” Ironton Schools Superintendent Dean Nance said. “During construction you get dust that sometimes that gets in the duct work because there’s still some work going on in the school. Our fire alarm systems are set up to call a monitoring system that monitors fire alarm and smoke detectors.”

Nance said he appreciates the Ironton Police Department responding to the alarm and alerting the fire department, which also responded.

“There was no fire, there was no danger of a fire, it was simply that that system was picking up dust,” Dean Nance said.

The alarm also went off later in the morning Tuesday.

“The community doesn’t need to be alarmed in the next couple days if they hear the alarm going off, however we’re going to respond just as if there is a fire because we want to protect the community’s investment,” Nance said.

Construction on the new school is wrapping up. Workers have been cleaning and waxing the floors, Nance said.

The school will be open this month.