Alumni Square Evacuated After Alarms Sound

Students were evacuated from Alumni Square and parts of N and O Streets were blocked off after fire alarms sounded around 1:40 a.m. Saturday. 

Four D.C. firefighters began suiting up at 2:07 a.m. At that time they also prepared a main hose and ladder from a fire truck on the corner of 37th and O Streets.

One Student Neighborhood Assistance Program SUV, four D.C. fire trucks, a D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services battalion SUV and four Department of Public Safety squad cars all responded to the scene.

D.C. Fire/EMS teams left the scene around 2:15 a.m. and all evacuated students were permitted to return to their apartments.

According to a D.C. firefighter on the scene, the alarms went off because a student left a stove on. It is not yet clear if there were any damages.

About 50 people, many of them high school students currently living in Alumni Square, were evacuated to the campus side of 37th Street. Most congregated on the steps of Lauinger Library. The Alumni Square quadrangle was also blocked off and N and O Streets were closed between 36th and 37th Streets.

 DPS officers on the scene declined to comment on the incident.