A faulty breaker caused the fire alarm system in Lawrence Hall to play a loud alert tone around 3 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 3.

Chris Hill, Vice President of Physical Plant Operations, said that the fire alarm system was still fully operational even during the malfunction.

A replacement breaker was installed “the following morning,” Hill said.

The fire alarm at Lawrence Hall was first activated around 11:07 p.m. because of smoke coming from The Nook, which is a community kitchen located outside the Point Cafe. According to Pittsburgh Fire dispatchers, the activation was confirmed false and the fire alarm system was reset by Point Park Police.

Smoke was around the Nook when the fire department showed up, but it was not enough to warrant a major response or a need to extinguish any fires. Hill confirmed that the smoke by the Nook was caused by a student burning food on the griddle.

Approximately three hours later, the fire alarm began audibly malfunctioning. When this was happening, no fire engines showed up at Lawrence Hall because the system did not send any alerts to Pittsburgh Fire Rescue while it was erroneously playing the alert tone.

This tone could be heard on every floor of Lawrence Hall, with fire alarms with a strobe light attached flashing during the late-night malfunction.

The alert tone did not stop for several minutes. Normally, the tone only plays for a few seconds and is then followed by a pre-recorded voice message telling people to evacuate the building.

Instead of hearing the voice evacuation message, the firm alarm only played the same tone the entire time.

Several videos of the malfunction were posted on the community Snapchat story groups.

It is unclear how long this breaker has been faulty or if it is regularly bypassed whenever the system is reset.

Also unclear is whether or not a faulty breaker has caused fire alarm malfunctions at Lawrence Hall in previous years.