False alarms empty north campus buildings

Displaced students and instructors filled the sidewalks north of the Quad yesterday after two separate fire alarms caused evacuations of the business-school buildings and Denny Hall.

Sirens first sounded aroun ad 2:10 p.m. after an alarm switch was pulled in the Foster Business Library. Firefighters, police and UW Facilities Services personnel arrived within minutes to deactivate the alarm. Business-school facilities personnel said they suspected the alarm was maliciously activated.

"This happens occasionally and it usually corresponds with midterms and finals," said business school administrator Betsy Raleigh. "I think the last time was around two years ago."

The second alarm sounded at 3:30 p.m. in Denny Hall, minutes after business students had returned to their classrooms. Smoke detectors triggered the alarm after fumes leaked from a chimney vent on the fourth floor and spread to the rest of the building.

"Students were burning wood into charcoal in the anthropology lab downstairs," said Doug Machle, the Denny Hall building coordinator. "They were doing it under a fume hood, but somehow the smoke escaped into the building."

Michael Caputi, the administrator of the anthropology department, said he thought the recent roofing work on Denny Hall kept the smoke from properly venting.

"The fume hoods in the basement vent into another hood on the fourth floor," Caputi said. "I think either the roofing process interfered with the natural venting or some junk got stuck in the chimney."