The fire alarm sounded Wednesday evening in the Union. Then, less than 40 minutes later, it went off for a second time.
SLC Fire Department Capt. Mark Hafen said construction workers in the basement of the Union by the computer labs set off the alarm. The first alarm started at 4:58 p.m. and was not turned off by SLCFD until twenty minutes later. At 5:40 p.m. the second alarm started, taking 30 minutes to stop.
Mitch Eastwold, building manager for the Union, said construction workers were welding pipes when smoke and dust from their project got too close to the fire detectors.
“It was an accident,” he said. “It happens all the time.”
As the bright white lights flashed inside, more than 30 students evacuated to outside the front doors of the Union.
Rebecca Kawamoto, a freshman in business, tried to walk through the Union front doors near 5 p.m. on Wednesday but was barred. Kawamoto, standing outside in confusion, just wanted to withdraw money from an ATM inside the building. She had walked down from the dorms and didn’t know the fire alarm was going off.
“Is it a real? Is it an actual fire?” she asked. “I just need to get money.”
Krystal Abreu, who works at the Union front desk, said she was more surprised that students weren’t quickly evacuating the building than she was by the loud beep of the alarm.
“If it was a real fire, you wouldn’t actually be walking around,” she said.
Abreu started her shift Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. and said because she’s worked in the Union for some time, the alarm was “not new” to her. She remained in the building, working through the sound of the siren, during the second alarm.
U employees ushered students back into the Union before the alarm was disabled, citing the cause posed no danger. Greg Matthews with the U’s Department of Public Safety helped reset the alarm the first time but noted that many students never actually left the building.
“There are so many false alarms that people are immune to it,” Matthews said.
[email protected]
@CourtneyLTanner