Students evacuated from LCCC residence hall in wake of fire alarm

Students living in the east residence halls on the Laramie County Community College campus were evacuated Friday night after the fire alarm was activated.

The alarm was triggered by a broken fire suppression sprinkler head in one of the residence hall rooms, said Laramie County Fire District No. 1 engineer Matt Fahl.

There was no fire and no apparent smoke, and there were no injuries. If the damage to the fire suppression system couldn’t be repaired, the fire department couldn’t allow the students to stay in their rooms overnight. 

“We just want to make sure everyone’s safe tonight, and with the water shut off, we can’t have that assurance,” said Fahl. “We had to shut off the water main to the entire building, and the sprinkler head has to be fixed and the water has to be recharged before we can turn the water back on.”

LCCC Vice President of Student Services Judy Hay said the fire sprinkler company believed it could fix the sprinkler head, recharge the system, and get many of the students back in their rooms before midnight. However, because of the water from the sprinkler system, some of the rooms remain uninhabitable.

Those students not able to return to their rooms will be able to stay in area hotels.

LCCC will provide more information as it becomes available.