Alarm causes evacuation of Tucker
By Lara Hendrickson
Staff Reporter

Students and professors were evacuated the Tucker Technology Center Monday afternoon and six fire trucks arrived when the fire alarm went off after a classroom experiment went awry.

Captain Robert Webb of the Fort Worth Fire Department said the problem came from a refrigeration unit that sends freon through pipes. The freon cooled, and when it reversed to heat, it was too much for the pipe to handle, he said. The pipe overheated, causing it to smoke, he said.

Webb said it was lucky the smoke did not turn into flames and that the fire trucks were only needed if the incident had turned into a “real emergency.”

“You could really call this an experiment gone bad,” he said.
Computer science professor Billy Farmer said the smoke was coming from the engineering labs on the second floor.

K.T. Freeman, battalion chief of the Fort Worth Fire Department, said the building was given a sufficient walk-through before students and faculty were allowed back in the building.

“They looked through the research lab thoroughly,” Freeman said. “There was no reason not to allow students back in the building.”

Tyler Smith, a junior engineering major, said he was interrupted by the alarm while working on a project in the building.

“I was in the computer lab when the alarm went off,” Smith said. “Everyone left the building right away. It was a little alarming.”

Smith also said there was a voiced-alarm sounding in the building that said, “Students evacuate the building,” and “Students do not use the elevators.”

Freeman said all students in the building learned a lesson regarding the effects of heat, and that the building was only closed for about 20 minutes.

“Probably not long enough for students,” Freeman said.

Smith agreed with Freeman, saying he was not anxious to get back to class, but that the speedy re-entrance to the building was probably for the best.

“I really did have a lot of homework to do,” Smith said.

l.c.hendrickson@tcu.edu