False alarm empties Woodburn

Seventh Street was lined with emergency response vehicles for the better part of an hour Thursday afternoon.\nA call came in at approximately 4 p.m. of visible smoke on the third floor of Woodburn Hall, said Battalion Chief Chuck Welch. All students and faculty were evacuated when the alarm went off.\nBloomington Fire Department responded with four full-size fire trucks. \nAssistant Professor of political science Henry Hale was in his office on the fourth floor when the alarm sounded. He said he smelled smoke and left when the alarm sounded. \nJunior Monika Hartman was sitting in her Y375 class when the alarm sounded.\n"Class was about to start, we were all getting settled in and the alarm went off. We were all like 'Is this real? Do we really have to go outside?' It was like being in high school again, everyone was single file."\nThere was still a smell of smoke at 4:20, so firefighters moved students and faculty across the street.\nAt least one political science professor, Jeffrey Hart, cancelled class, but remained outside joking with students that the next few class sessions would be necessarily intense to make up for the missed session.\nUltimately, though, the alarm proved to be a false one.\nJeff Barlow, fire chief, said that there was an odor, but after a complete check, no problem was found and the alarm system was re-set. \nWoodburn Hall has been the scene of 12 fire alarms since Jan. 1, 2004 according IU police department Lt. Jerry Minger. Eight have had no known or decipherable cause. Two more were attributed to elevator problems, another to a cigarette butt beneath a fire alarm and the fourth to a "smoldering bush," possibly caused by a cigarette.\n-- Contact Copy Chief Kehla West at krwest@indiana.edu