Widener Alarm

Students, faculty and staff evacuated Widener Library after a false fire alarm sounded at about 5:40 p.m. yesterday.

Neither Harvard security officers nor Cambridge firemen on the scene said they knew why the third-floor alarm went off.

"It was probably a system malfunction," Lt. Edward Rose of the Cambridge Fire Department said. "Harvard holds a record in those," he added.

After firemen in the library found no trace of a fire, the three fire trucks departed. The library re-opened shortly after 6 p.m.

Lawrence J. Kipp, acting librarian of Harvard College, had no information about the alarm last night.