In February 2010, UB students anxiously waited as news unfolded that a gunman was pacing Lockwood Library. As it turned out, there was never a gunman at all.
At 8:15 on Wednesday evening, approximately eighty students and faculty members were evacuated from Clemens Hall for fear of a fire, as smoke drifted through the hallways.
Once again, the threat was a false alarm.
Lights flashed in the night sky as six fire trucks, eight police cars, and one ambulance arrived quickly on the scene. The reason: in room 1004, there are wall-mounted heaters/air conditioners that blow out air with electrical motors. One of those motors malfunctioned, but kept running until it burned itself out.
Consequently, smoke appeared, and the other air conditioners pushed the smoke throughout Clemens Hall.
"We always have a plan," said University Police Department Lieutenant David P. Urbanek. "We did advise [those in Clemens Hall], ‘This is for real, leave,' and they did."
The fire departments from Getzville, North Bailey, North Ellicott Creek, and Snyder were on the scene.
Hal Limebeer, a senior English major, called 9-1-1 after noticing "a hazy smoke" and the smell of burning plastic.
"We were in our class and someone knocked on the door and said ‘You may want to vacate; there's smoke in the hallway,'" Limebeer said. "I was the last one out of the class. I smelled the smoke before I saw it. It had that sort of toxic smell to it.
"I was one of the only ones left up on the 10th floor and I was like ‘Don't you think someone should call 9-1-1?' 9-1-1 connected me through to the Amherst Police. I pulled the fire alarm and then we realized the whole building could be full of people and we don't know if the smoke is coming up and if we might be trapped. The Amherst Police gave me permission to smash the glass and pull the alarm, so that was pretty fun."
UPD arrived on the scene within 30 seconds of the call.
Though there are striking similarities between the scenes at Lockwood and Clemens, there is one fundamental difference between the two situations: this time, students were not informed of the episode.
Several UPD officers said the incident took place in a controlled environment and wasn't a danger to students.
Joseph Brennan is the associate vice president for university communications. He made the call to not send out an emergency text message. Brennan said he made the decision because there was no imminent threat to students.
Though there was no apparent danger, several students were stuck in fascinating circumstances.
Shant Tamazian, a freshman biomedical sciences major, was given a rude greeting from one policeman.
"When we were walking towards Clemens, that's when [the first responders] were coming in.," Tamazian said. "And one cop just said: ‘Turn around; don't even ask about it,' as if someone was dead."
Matt Lower, a freshman social anthropology major, was a firefighter in his home state of North Carolina. When he saw the fire trucks, he ran to the scene.
Eric Davila, a freshman undecided major was in class on the basement floor of Clemens when the fire alarm went off.
"Everybody was still in their classes, just sitting around," Davila said. "We were all really confused, wondering if it was a fire drill. Then we started to walk out when our teacher decided, ‘oh, maybe this is a natural fire.'"
Freshman business major Jesse Cramer was on his way to work out, walking behind Clemens to Alumni Arena, when the scene unfolded. Cramer said he smelled smoke and heard a ton of sirens, so he knew something big was happening.
Several students believe UB could've handled the situation much better.
"I'm kind of surprised that I haven't gotten a campus alert about whatever is going on here," said Jessica Kolceski, a senior theatre major. "I mean, I'm signed up for text alerts so I'm like, ‘what the heck?'"
Senior English major Caleb Houseknecht was in class in Clemens.
"At first, it didn't really sound like a typical fire alarm," Houseknecht said. "This one was more like a dinging bell like someone was hitting a glass with a spoon, so nobody really thought it was a fire alarm. Our teacher didn't really know what we should do, so he checked and after a couple minutes we slowly walked out. I think UB should send out some sort of emergency text message, or inform the teachers of how to react to a fire alarm, or do something because we were all pretty much clueless."
Students weren't the only ones left frustrated.
Several UB faculty members present at the scene were irritated that they couldn't get back to their offices to retrieve any materials they left inside.
English adjunct instructor Andrew Galarneau was just over an hour into his first class of the semester when it was cut short due to the incident. That particular class only meets once per week, for a total of 14 times during the semester, so Galarneau was disappointed that the episode threw off his teaching schedule.
Though this time it was just a hassle, students have voiced concern about what would've been done if there were an actual fire. Urbanek assures students that they have no need to worry.
"[When the fire alarm is pulled], we get a signal immediately," Urbanek said. "We immediately respond. We confirmed we had smoke in the building. How we do things here is that we set up a primary command area. We have traffic and everything controlled so nothing interferes with the area."
Onlookers began to worry when members of the Twin City Ambulance unloaded a stretcher and rolled it into Clemens. However, UPD said the stretcher was simply a precaution in case a fire fighter was to fall ill.
Firefighters pulled down ceiling tiles to make sure nothing had spread. Clemens Hall re-opened at 9:45 p.m.
Classes in Clemens will continue as normally scheduled this week.
Additional Reporting by Madeleine Burns
Email: news@ubspectrum.com
