The fire alarms in MacOdrum Library went off shortly after 4 p.m. on March 26, and although there was no fire, the event has raised questions about Carleton’s emergency procedures.
Students evacuated the library and emergency personnel responded after the alarms went off, but there were issues of bottle-necking at library exits and students were not following evacuation plans.
Dan Crich, a third-year student and Carleton University Students’ Association councillor, was present in the library at the time of evacuation. He said it was unclear what was happening as students left the library.
“The fire alarm went off and everyone took a minute or a minute and a half to grab their stuff,” Crich said. “We all rushed out the front doors here, and there was no one telling us anything at the front doors about what was going on.”
Library employee Al Alcazar said students left the building immediately but was not sure of what caused the alarm.
Allan Burns, head of university safety, later confirmed the alarm was caused by construction work in the library washrooms.
“It happens from time to time. We can’t guarantee it won’t happen again, but the worker has been educated on what went wrong so we can hopefully avoid this in the future,” Burns said.
Katherine Snow, a third-year journalism student, said she was in the library when the alarm went off and found evacuation a little disorganized.
“I barely heard it but noticed people filing out, so I packed up too then just went and found a spot in Tory,” Snow said.
Burns also said they have received no complaints from students about the evacuation.
Rick Percival, the fire prevention officer at Carleton’s environmental health and safety department, said there are extensive resources and plans in place to help students evacuate safely.
Among other things, there are signs throughout every building and fire wardens to help direct students, Percival said.
But it also has to do with each student’s responsibility to act responsibly, he said.
“It’s a collective, collaborative effort. It’s not just me handing you a paper, turn left turn right go outside,” he said.
Percival also said students can visit booths and awareness events, and also follow the university and Campus Safety on Twitter to keep up to date on when fire routes change.
Crich said he was concerned about future emergencies after this false alarm.
“It’s clear that they didn’t really take it seriously in my opinion. I’m afraid that the next time something like this happens and there’s an actual emergency,” he said.
