Students and staff in Seaton Hall were interrupted by fire alarms Tuesday afternoon after alarms sounded in one of the hall’s wings.
Witnesses say the fire alarms sounded off around 12:30 p.m., and students were evacuated out of the building shortly after. Students at the scene claimed a similar false alarm event occurred weeks prior, and weren’t sure whether to leave the building or not.
“The fire alarm went off and we all kind of questioned whether or not it was a drill”, Jacob Karst, a 5th year architecture student said. “They were testing it a few weeks ago and so the alarms went off for 15 minutes but they told us not to worry about it.”
A Manhattan Fire Department truck arrived on the scene five minutes after students exited the building, and MFD began investigating the alarms and emergency systems in the building.
Part of Seaton Hall was briefly closed off to students to accommodate first responders, but was reopened around 1:00 p.m.
MFD officials indicated the alarm was triggered after a dry sprinkling system for dust collection was accidentally charged. First responders arrived on the scene at 12:50 p.m. and shut down part of the system, and turned over the situation to K-State Facilities.