Alarm sounded at Widtsoe Hall
Three fire engines and an ambulance responded to an alarm in Widtsoe Hall Sunday night.
“There was no fire,” Logan Fire Captain Bob VanSlyke said.
He said a fan belt broke on a machine and there was a little smoke.
“It’s happened before, earlier this winter,” he said. “Last time it took us a long time to find the problem, but we had an idea where to look this time.
“There were a few people [inside],” VanSlyke said. “And they evacuated the building.”
He said people were clear to go back inside, and the only problem seemed to be a little dissipated smoke.
Yu Hui, a graduate student studying organic chemistry, was in the building using a computer for a lab when the alarm went off. He said he didn’t smell the smoke until he came down to the first floor.
“It’s kinda scary,” he said.
Initially, no one was sure what machine was causing the problem.
Derrick Christenson, USU Campus Police officer, said the problem was a belt in the air compressor generator.
He said, the police planned on letting the building air out.
“There are four of [the generators] down there,” he said. “The other generators should cover it for the rest of the night and tomorrow until the problem can be fixed.”
The compressed air is used for labs and the heating systems, he said.
He also said a few chemistry professors came to the building to see if help was needed, in case of a fire.
VanSlyke said a fire in a chemistry building is scary but when he smelled the smoke, he knew it was rubber burning and not a chemical fire.