Fire alarm on campus

Fire Truck on Campus

I was in the middle of a meeting with the project manager of the Universal Case Competition Organizing Committee when the fire alarm went off. Immediately, I stopped the meeting and lead everyone out of the building. As for the meeting, we continued with the discussion in the designated safe zone outside the Discovery 1 building. The meeting was the first for the next semester's UCC Case Competition, where we plan and schedule the dates for all of Spring 2017 activities.

Waiting to return to class

Apparently, someone has left a plastic container in the microwave oven in the student lounge on the first floor. The student has not only forgotten about the container left in the microwave oven, but has wrongly keyed in the instructions. Instead of three minutes, the microwave oven was timed for three hours. Thick smoke was seen coming out from the microwave oven and the student lounge which triggered the fire alarm.

Fire truck on the background

Everyone in the building were scrambled out onto the narrow open space between the two discovery buildings for about twenty minutes before allowed back in. When we reentered the building, there were a strong smell of burned plastic which confirms the microwave oven fire. Coincidentally, this incident happened during the noon lunch break and there were no classes or exams at that time. I went straight back to my classroom and once the students were all settled in their places, started the lecture.