Widener Evacuation

A smoke detector, apparently set off by paint fumes in the Widener Library staff room, yesterday caused the library to be evacuated for fifteen minutes, William Osborn, Evening Security Supervisor of the library, said yesterday.

"It wasn't a fault in the system," Osborn said, adding that "it proves the system works."

People in the library were told to wait in the lobby while firemen made a routine check of the system, Lt. Robert Morrissey, of the Cambridge Fire Department said yesterday.

"As far as I'm concerned, it was just a malfunction," Morrissey said, adding that the Harvard Fire Engineering Department will look into the cause of the alarm.

The false alarm was the first at the library in about a year, Osborn said, adding that alarms of this type are often set off by paint fumes.