Smoke causes Springfield Mall evacuation on 'Super Saturday'

Thousands of last-minute holiday shoppers at the Springfield Mall were evacuated for nearly two hours on Saturday when a vent broke in the food court.

The mall was evacuated just after 3 p.m. as firefighters arrived to extinguish what appeared to be smoke inside Sbarro's in the food court.

The incident was initially reported as a fire. But "it was a vent malfunction, no actual fire," said Heather Crowell, spokeswoman for Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, which owns the mall in Delaware County.

The mall was reopened about 4:30 p.m.

The evacuation happened on "Super Saturday," a term for the final weekend of the busy holiday-shopping season culminating with Christmas Day.