As about 25 students did their late night studying on Wednesday, Feb. 6 in the library, the children’s book section on the second floor filled up with smoke at 9 p.m., due to a defect air conditioning blower motor. Working staff evacuated the building, while the police and fire department inspected the situation.

Chris Henderson, the director of the media department said, “There was grey smoke coming out of the CLM area. I tried to make people leave the building, because the fire alarm did not go off.”

The 113-decibel alarm did not go off, because the smoke detectors are not sensitive enough.

Dan Williams chief of police said, “There was just not enough smoke build up to set off the fire alarm.”

Students misunderstood the situation as a practice fire drill and used the elevator, while leaving the building.

Henderson informed students to take the stairs and to go outside or in the entrance hall of the building, while the Night Assistant Circulation Manager, Lila Davis was responsible to evacuate the building and made the announcement over the loud speakers.

“You could not really make out what she was saying, because people started to panic, especially those students who were on the third floor,” Henderson said.

The library does not have a fire suppression system in the building, but the required fire extinguishers.

“The police made sure there was a problem and then called the fire department,” Henderson said.

Clara Latham, the director of Moffett Library, was not present during the evacuation, but Henderson informed her 30 minutes after the police arrived.

“We had to evacuate the building. Better safe than sorry,” Williams said.

The fire department struggled reaching the library, because students were blocking the fire lane.

“Cars started to pull up to see what all the commotion was about, I left shortly afterwards,” Henderson said.