The UT Police Department is still looking for the man who disrupted campus by pulling fire alarms in eight campus buildings Monday.
UT spokesperson Cindy Posey said the false alarms resulted in evacuations on the north and south sides of campus for about two hours. UTPD posted pictures of a suspect on Facebook Tuesday afternoon. On Monday, Posey released information about the suspect: a 5-feet-5-inches tall man, 180 pounds with short black hair.
Chemistry lecturer Sara Sutcliffe said the alarm did not impact her much because she had 10 minutes of office hours left in Welch Hall when the fire alarm was activated.
“It just irritates me that somebody is going to use something which is meant for a serious purpose in a flippant way like this,” Sutcliffe said.
Sutcliffe, who also is a volunteer firefighter, also said because lab experiments occasionally set off alarms, the evacuation of her building proceeded fairly smoothly. She said she took it seriously because Welch Hall has almost burned down before. In October 1996, a postdoctoral research project resulted in a fire on the fifth floor of the building, according to an article in the Victoria Advocate.
Devon Rooks, a psychology and sociology freshman, said he evacuated from the Texas Union as a result of the alarm-pulling spree. Rooks, who was getting lunch, said at first he did not take the alarm seriously.
“But then a message came on and [it] was like ‘No, something is going on. You need to get out,’” Rooks said.
Rooks said he made it out with his lunch and backpack, but there were people behind him who had to evacuate before they could get their food. Overall, Rooks said he was satisfied with UTPD and Austin Fire Department’s response.
“By the time that I got out of my class, people were already back at the Union,” he said. “And by the time I checked my email after class, the UT police were like ‘Hey, this is what happened.’”
UT police sent out a description of the suspect Monday at 4:51 p.m. Undeclared freshman Shanzeh Mohammed also said she was satisfied with UTPD’s response, and her calculus class was allowed back into Calhoun Hall about eight minutes after the fire alarm was pulled at approximately 2:20 p.m.
Mohammed said she has one question for the uncaught prankster: “Why?” As of press time, UTPD said they still had made no arrests and need witnesses to step forward. They may be contacted at 512-471-4441.
