Students evacuated the Ezra Taft Benson Building as fire alarms sounded throughout the building around 5 p.m. on Oct. 16.
Six fire trucks from the Provo Fire Department arrived to assess the situation, along with an ambulance and several BYU Police vehicles.
Steam steadily rose from the ground on the Benson Building’s east side, but it’s unclear whether the steam was the cause for the evacuation or the sign of a larger problem.
BYU Police Lt. Rhodes explained the issue: “They had a seal on a high-pressure steam line that failed, which caused the room to fill with steam. That’s what was coming out the vents. It was just a high-pressure steam line,” Rhodes said.
Matt Evans, a PD Bio major, was in his CHEM 352 class when the fire alarm sounded and he evacuated the building. His professor told him of “a problem with some vapors.”
