Mather Alarm

Mather House residents were forced to evacuate their rooms Monday night when a false alarm, triggered by a short circuit in one of the smoke detectors, went off at 11:41 p.m.

Students waited in the Mather courtyard for over half an hour while house tutors helped evacuate the building and officers from the Cambridge Fire Department inspected the building, Harvard police captain Jack Morse said.

Some of the House's more than 430 residents appeared in the courtyard in bathrobes and shoes, but most were fully dressed. David E. Edelman '83 said he was watching the Eagles-Falcon game in television when the alarm sounded. "I decided. 'To hell with this, I'm going to go over to Winthrop and watch the football,' and by the time I got back they were all inside," he added.

Mather House Master David Herlihy was "fast asleep" when the alarm sounded, and "kind of stood by the door" to watch. Herlihy said that there have been no previous equipment malfunctions of this sort, adding, "I hope it doesn't happen again."