Building evacuated at UMBC, BCFD responds

About 9:35-9:40 this morning I was sitting on the first floor of the Commons on campus at UMBC when the building fire alarm started going off and the automated voice warned people to evacuate the building. People were taking their time, almost as if they were waiting for the alarms to be turned off or it be confirmed as a drill. Neither happened and a crowd streamed out of all the offices on the upper floors and students left from the lower floors.

Once outside, I noticed a UMBC Police officer show up via bicycle. She went in and checked the alarm panel just inside the entry foyer on the bottom floor and then went inside. 3 UMBC police cruisers showed up after that. A UMBC police officer asked that people not congregate so close to the doors and a few confused people kept trying to go into the building before fire trucks arrived. The first vehicle to show up from the Baltimore County FD was an ambulance. Then 2 pumpers (or maybe combinations) showed up along with a ladder truck. A battalion chief in an SUV showed up along with the. By this point, Commons Circle had been blocked off by UMBC PD and I noticed other flashing red lights over the ridge on Center Rd. I’m not sure if they were other fire trucks or just other auxiliary vehicles.

Most of the firefighters were in turnout gear and they proceeded to go into the building and go up the one stairwell that can be seen from the outside. There were various trips by BCFD, UMBC PD and even some Facilities Management people. There were some people (not in uniform) working on the roof of the main floor near where the gameroom roof goes up on the end of the building at some point during all this. After several trips in and out of the building, the firefighters came back outside and started getting out of their bunker gear and by 10:20 the building was reopened and all of the fire trucks were gone by approximately 10:30 (the ladder truck was still around then but left shortly thereafter as soon as they got the ladder down and the the supports retracted.)

From what I’ve heard through the grapevine since then, some welders working in or on top of the building were the cause of the fire alarm. I haven’t heard for sure if there was definitely a fire and/or where it was.

If you click on the above picture you can see one of the several pictures I took during these events. More will be posted later.

UPDATE: The rest of the pictures are here.