The possible malfunctioning of a chlorine gas detector led to the evacuation of Engineering IV just before 3 p.m. Thursday.
There were no injuries, and the chlorine tank in question was shut off to prevent the possibility of a gas leak.
“When the sniffer detects a certain amount of gas, it automatically sounds the alarm, whether an evacuation is needed or not,” said Steve Franz, the building’s lab manager. “It probably shouldn’t have happened, the evacuation, and that’s what we’re looking at now.”
The alarm originated in the nanotechnology lab at 2:46 p.m. when a loudspeaker announcement instructed people to evacuate the building through the west side. The evacuation lasted about 30 minutes.
Serhan Isikman, a doctoral student in electrical engineering, said he was on the first floor of the building when the alarm went off.
He said he did not smell any gas himself, but his friend mentioned she did.
“We were wondering if there was really a gas leak, was (30 minutes) enough time (for the gas) to be ventilated?” Isikman said.
The important thing is there was never any risk to occupants, said Steve Jurado, deputy fire marshals for the UCLA campus.
“We’re talking minute particles per billion in terms of the toxic gas it’s sensing ““ well below life-threatening levels,” Jurado said.
The next step is to determine whether the alarm was triggered because of mechanical error, Franz said. For now, the sensor has been quarantined to see what happens.
High heat and humidity may have caused the alarm, although building managers will know for sure within the next day.
Franz said such alarms are very rare.
“Sometimes they can trigger even when there’s not an event,” he said. “It’s just one of those things we have to live with.”
With reports by Gordon Murray, Bruin contributor