Booth Library experienced a malfunction of its fire alarm Wednesday morning forcing students and faculty inside to relocate outside.

Allen Lanham, the dean of library sciences, said the library staff made sure all students and faculty exited the building promptly.

He said the fire alarm went off because of a malfunction of the alarm.

“We followed the procedures,” Lanham said.

The only exception to the procedure was they did not make students move further away from the building, Lanham said.

“If there was evidence of a fire, we would have made the students move farther back,” Lanham said.

Amanda Hermann, a sophomore sociology major, said nobody got up when the fire alarm went off at about 10 a.m.

“I was on Facebook when someone came in and told us it was not a drill,” Hermann said.

Natalie Masciopinto, a senior family and consumer sciences major, thought the library was testing its alarm system and said she regrets not taking the evacuation serious, even though it was a malfunction.

“I probably should have reacted a little better but I didn’t see or smell smoke,” Masciopinto said. “I didn’t think I was in danger.”

Matt Bower is a fireman and paramedic with the Charleston Fire Department and has been with the fire department since 2000.

“It was just a malfunction,” Bower said. “We were actually doing some ladder training in the area and it took about three minutes to get here.”

Tori Nolfi, a junior family and consumer sciences major, was working on homework in the library when the fire alarm went off.

“I thought it was a joke,” Nolfi said.

Jacob Uhunmwangho, a freshman kinesiology major, was trying to work on a speech outline in the computer lab when the malfunction occurred.

“Everyone stayed in the computer labs as long as possible,” Uhunmwangho said.

Sandra Nees, the LAN administrator for the library, gives regular workshops and is in charge of managing the Library Technology Services’ computer lab.

“We were doing a workshop on Microsoft Access,” Nees said. “Luckily most of the workshop was over.”

Students, faculty and staff were allowed back inside at 10:30 a.m.

Elizabeth Edwards and Nike Ogunbodede can be

reached at 581-2812 or dennewsdesk@gmail.com

Dean Allen Lanham (left) watches as a Charleston firefighter enters the Booth Library Wednesday during a fire alarm.(Danny Damiani

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