Student and faculty members were forced to evacuate the SC building in the West Windsor campus after a reported fire took place on Friday, Nov. 2 at approximately 9:50am.
Apparently, a piece of burnt toast triggered the evacuation that prompted a full EMS and firefighter response from West Windsor.
Michael J. O’Cone, Deputy Chief of fire station 43 of West Windsor Volunteer Fire Company said via email, “From what I can remember, the November 2 incident was insignificant in nature and nothing was noted outside. [We recorded] ‘No smoke or fire, fire department services not required.’”
Bryon Marshall, Director of College Safety at Mercer stated via email, “The desk officer (College Safety) attempted to reroute and cancel the alarm but the units had already been dispatched in.” Before they could confirm, the auto-dialer made the dispatch.
According to Michael Flaherty, Commander of Safety and Security at Mercer, the reason the rerouting of the units failed was due to the alarm company itself. “When the officer called the alarm company to cancel the fire department, there was a delay because the alarm company didn’t answer the phone right away.”
He continued, “when we get to the bottom of it, somebody burnt toast in her office, the fire alarm went off and we followed standing operating procedure.”
Marshall released a precautionary statement to the college’s faculty and staff after the event stating, “Please ensure that you actively monitor the warming or cooking of food products, shut off all appliances (i.e., toaster, microwave and warmer ovens, coffee pots, space heaters, etc.), and turn off all office lights before leaving your office and workspace.”
Elizabeth Kelley current Mercer sophomore was unfazed when told about this burnt toast incident she was unaware of. She stated, “I feel like we lack safety and security a little bit here at Mercer County…as a college we should be more safe.”
As of now, it is unclear who burnt the toast and what room it occurred in. Last year on November 16, the AD building was evacuated over a rumored burnt popcorn. It seems as though these “false alarm” fires are quite common to the West Windsor campus.
