Shortly after lunch, the students of the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW) in Muttenz finished learning. The alarm went off at exactly 1:37 p.m. “For unknown reasons, the campus in Muttenz is being evacuated,” a reader reporter reports shortly before 2 p.m. on Monday afternoon. Videos show hundreds of students leaving the building.
However, the forced break was not over yet. The students were not allowed to re-enter the university. “We now have to wait on the site until we are given a sign that we can go back into the building,” said the reader-reporter. A loudspeaker announcement, however, informed everyone during the 20-minute break that the alarm was triggered by smoke in the canteen.
It is now clear where the smoke came from in the cafeteria: at least one of the students was no longer able to eat during the break. Dominik Ehrsam, Head of Marketing and Communication at the FHNW campus in Muttenz, says: «In the cafeteria on the gallery floor, a student wanted to prepare a pizza in a microwave oven. Unfortunately, the device was not set correctly, whereupon the pizza was heated too much and smoke – but no fire – developed. »
«Everything worked well»
Since practically two sensors indicate this smoke development, a fire alarm was scheduled and the first four floors of the campus should have been evacuated, says Ehrsam.
Ehrsam takes the fire alarm, however, as a rather positive experience: “The fire alarm and the evacuation have shown us that everything works well.” That the students had not used the emergency stairways is due to the fact that there are interim semesters at the moment and they are unattended in the house would stop. “Logically, the students also used the normal stairs because they saw that there was no fire and no danger. Our security officer is not making any major allegations, ”Ehrsam said.
FHNW students must leave the university. (Video: reader reporter)
(Mhu)
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