Fire in Packard disrupts classes, exams

The fire alarm in Packard Laboratory went off around 9 a.m. on Tuesday, prompting a response from the Bethlehem Fire Department and Lehigh University Police Department. The reported trashcan fire on the second floor was extinguished prior to the arrival of first responders.

Everyone in the building was evacuated, and multiple classes were disrupted. There were no injuries.

“We had started my lecture for about five minutes when it happened,” Gang Tan, a professor who teaches CSE 262, wrote in an email.

Tan had planned to use the lecture to finish a topic and review for an in-class exam. By the time the situation was over, there was only time left in class to do the review.

“The good thing is that the exam does not cover the topic I planned to finish,” Tan said. “But we lost two-thirds of lecture time, which means less time for some advanced topic later.”

Some students also were taking exams during the evacuation.

“I was very irritated because I pulled an all-nighter for my cell biology test,” Nicole Fiene, ’16, said. “The fire department takes about an hour to clear the building, so of course our test was canceled. I was extremely frustrated and so was the rest of the class”.

To make up for lost time because of the fire, some professors had to make arrangements for exams to be given outside of class so the syllabus would not be changed.

Despite the frustration that some students experienced, most professors and students were calm about the situation and the fire did not cause significant damage.

“Honestly, I was pretty excited when the situation happened,” Chloe Stein, ’17, said. “It was a beautiful day out, and we got to spend an hour outside. I was a little nervous about not knowing what would be on the test next week, but I figured we would somehow get that information.”

According to an email sent out by Chief Shupp, the building was evacuated and the fire was completely extinguished.