Blaring alarms sounded throughout Lind Hall after a chilled water leak in the mechanical room triggered fire alarms at approximately 11:10 p.m. on June 7, according to an eye witness and Associate Vice President of Campus Planning and Facilities Management Shane Scott.

According to Scott, the chilled water leak was “very problematic” because it was located in the mechanical room where the electrical panels are. This caused a brief delay because the team had to shut the power off before being able to shut off the water. 

“Once we got power shut off, then we immediately closed off the leak and began repair,” Scott said.

According to Scott, firemen and policemen were on the scene “instantaneously” and did a great job identifying the leak. 

Lind Hall was evacuated, causing The Observer staff to relocate from the Observer office to the library where they finished submitting pages of the final Orientation Issue. 

“The alarms sounded like an air raid alarm,” said Addie Adkins, the Orientation Issue editor for the Observer. “I didn’t really believe it was a real thing, but we finally got our stuff together and got out of the building.”

Adkins said the police were on the scene almost immediately after the four Observer staff members exited the building, followed by the fire department minutes later.

“The officers were really helpful,” Adkins said. “One of the officers asked if we had any work to save and escorted us back into the building to gather the items we left. It was just a really weird way to end my time on campus.”

Despite the leak shutting down the building after hours, the disruption to the building only lasted overnight, according to Scott.

“Once my team got there, they worked all through the night and into the morning to make sure that the building could be operated today because we know it’s finals week,” Scott said. 

Scott said Lind Hall was back in order and open for class Wednesday morning. 

“We’ve still got a little bit of repair to do on the chilled water pipes, that will probably take us through the end of the week, but we were happy to get the building open for use today,” Scott said.