Entire Francis Hall Evacuates to the Sound of Blaring Alarms

The residents of Francis Hall were evacuated from their dorms at approximately 9:30 a.m. on Aug. 31 after the fire alarms were set off. 

Loyola Communication Specialist Emily Ramstetter, said the cleaning of kitchen equipment in the café created smoke and caused the fire alarm to go off. Students were evacuated as a precaution and the all-clear was given shortly after.

Campus Safety has not responded to requests for an interview. 

There has been no formal response to the event, according to first-year Emma Allen, a student woken up by the fire alarm.

“We still don’t know why the fire drill happened, if it was an actual fire or if it was a fire drill,” Allen, 19,  said. “We were never told, and if it was a fire drill, we never got an email saying that it was.”

There was no sight of any fire, but first-year Morgan Brody noticed the smell.

“I didn’t see any fire, but I smelt really intense smoke,” Brody, the cognitive-behavioral neuroscience major said.

The fire alarms couldn’t be heard throughout the entire building, according to public health major Lizabeth Gonzales.

“When the fire alarm went off I was in my room, I just got back from my discussion, and I didn’t hear a thing,” Gonzales,18, said. “But after I was heading down to study, I found out just a few minutes before the alarm went off and I didn’t hear anything.”

Gonzales also expressed concern for the lack of procedural knowledge in this situation.

“I actually don’t know what the fire alarms sound like yet because we didn’t have any fire alarm training,” Gonzales said. “I also thought that was kinda weird. We should really have that during Welcome Week, I think,because if something happened, I would have had no idea.” 

Multiple residents expressed concerns about the lack of knowledge for the situation, such as Kaisi Helms, a forensic science major who was not in the building at the time.

“I would be pretty spooked and concerned, because we haven’t gone over evacuation maps yet, so I wouldn’t really know where to go,” Helms, 18, said. “I would be learning in the moment, which I think would be kinda scary.” 

Brody said she was impacted by this lack of information during the incident. 

“I didn’t think it was that serious at first so I was kinda one of the last ones out,” Brody said.

The residents do not know the source of the evacuation, according to Allen. Brody said they heard some whispers floating around Francis Hall about the fire. 

“I heard rumors that it was a sandwich that got burnt in the cafe on the first floor,” Brody said.

This story was written by Anjo Olunaike

Featured image by Anjo Olunaike | The Phoenix