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St. Cloud State University
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Alarm interrupts orientation
By Kristen Kubisiak
Published:
Thursday, July 17, 2003
Media Credit: Eric O'Link
SCSU lead electrician Herman Gangl writes down the unit number of a faulty ballast (pictured below) in the ceiling near Atwood�s northeast entrance. The ballast overheated Wednesday, activated a fire alarm and caused 300 people to be evacuated from the building.
Media Credit: Eric O'Link
Media Credit: Shaana Kuseske
Two fire trucks arrive outside Atwood Wednesday afternoon to investigate the cause of the building�s fire alarm.
The St. Cloud fire department dispatched fire trucks to Atwood Memorial Center after a fire alarm sent an estimated 300 incoming freshmen students and their parents outside Wednesday afternoon.
According to Ed Bouffard, Atwood assistant director of operations, the cause of the alarm was a overheated ballast. The ballast controls part of Atwood's outdoor lighting system.
"Its not unusual for this to happen," said Bouffard. "We may just have to replace it and report what happened to the production company."
Herman Gangl, lead campus electrician, said there was a lot of wear and tear on the ballast and this may have contributed to the problem.
"Age caught up to it," Gangl said. "It shorted itself."
Gangl also said because ballasts are self-contained, they are relatively safe.
"They really cause very little trouble," he said. "They smoke a lot and smell when they burn, but they are built inside of their own steel containers and their light fixture casing maintains safety. So even if they burn up, they just smoke."
According to Gangl it's hard to determine when ballasts are going to need to be replaced.
"This one came in with Atwood's last redesigning seven years ago, but we have ones in Centennial Hall that have been on the grounds for 25 years," Gangl said. "You never know when they are going to come and go."
Incoming freshmen who were congregating in Atwood at the time of fire alarm were able to experience the effectiveness of the Atwood emergency system first-hand.
"We have a three-card system that allows the staff to respond to emergencies," Bouffard said.
The cards are available to Atwood staff so they can investigate one of the four fire alarm locations in the building and find the source of smoke. Missing cards indicate to remaining staff how many people are looking for the problem. Because the ballast was located above a tile in the ceiling, Bouffard was unable to discover it. That was when he called the fire department.
"Rather than let the source of the smoke get away, Ed called the fire department and they arrived on time, probably around 1:35 p.m.," Gangl said.
Bouffard said four other fire alarms that went off in the past two weeks can be attributed to ongoing Atwood construction.
"The sawdust is what usually sets the alarms off," Bouffard said.
Although the alarms may be inconvenient at times, their ability to identify the smallest abnormalities establish their dependability as detection devices.
Gangl explained that the fire detectors have two photoelectric cells, or in lay terms, two "eyes." When these "eyes" can't see one another because of smoke, dust or carcinogen, they set off an alarm.
"The 'eyes' couldn't see each other," Gangle said. "When the alarms go off like that they are doing exactly what they are supposed to do. It's better to prevent the fire than have to put it out."
A 'BALLAST' IS...
A "ballast" is a transformer that raises voltage enough to fire a current across a filament and, in this case, light a high-pressure sodium light bulb.
The trouble-causing ballast that controls some of Atwood's outdoor lighting bumped 227 volts up to about 400 volts.
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***YAWN*** it must be the summer cause t... (7/17/03)
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It's the Chronicle... go figure...... (7/17/03)
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