Cathedral faces hell of a day; bomb threat follows fire alarm

If you skipped class at the Cathedral yesterday, you probably didn’t need to. Students were… If you skipped class at the Cathedral yesterday, you probably didn’t need to. Students were forced to evacuate the Cathedral of Learning twice yesterday afternoon following a false fire alarm and a bomb threat.

The Pitt police received a call on their emergency line just before 5 p.m. from a person whose voice was electronically disguised. The caller said there was a bomb in the Cathedral, according to Pitt police Chief Tim Delaney.

Minutes after 5 p.m., a warning was sent out to students via the Emergency Notification system.

“We look for something unusual. We notify officers in the area,” Delaney said, explaining the process. “[We] ask people familiar with the environment if there’s anything unusual.”

The Pitt police promptly took action. Their single bomb-sniffing dog was deployed to investigate the Cathedral, and both the city police and Port Authority police dog units were enlisted to help.

Students arriving for 6 p.m. classes were greeted by police officers blocking the doors. As the crowd of displaced students formed outside, some grew anxious from the wait.

“[The officers and professors] don’t give you any kind of info as to whether your class got canceled or if you just have to wait around,” said A.J. Kelvington, a Pitt sophomore.

Kelvington added that he still appreciated the efforts of the police.

“It’s good to see there’s actually a response here taken seriously,” he said.

Most classes were canceled. But not all students had the night off, however, as some professors opted to continue their lessons outside. One class even headed off to Hemingway’s Cafe on Forbes Avenue.

At approximately 7:15 p.m., the Cathedral was declared safe and reopened.

False Alarm

But that wasn’t the first event requiring a mass Cathedral evacuation yesterday. Two hours prior to the bomb threat, the Cathedral was evacuated because of a false fire alarm. The building’s announcement system reported a fire on the third floor at approximately 3:45 p.m.

Students were unsure what caused the alarm. Mike Quinn, a Pitt junior, chalked up the false alarm to another student.

“Someone had a hard test, I bet that’s what it was,” he said.

Quinn remarked that he was unable to fully appreciate the break from class.

“We kind of needed to learn some of the stuff today. [This] would’ve been better earlier this semester,” he said.

Michael Thompson, a philosophy professor, said he was saved by the bell.

“I think my argument was going pretty badly, so it’s just as well that we pulled the plug on it,” he said with a chuckle.

Fire trucks appeared on the scene within minutes. Mark Niemiec, a member of the city’s fire department, showed up expecting the alarm to be false.

“Pitt in general gets a lot of false alarms,” he said.

A police officer on the scene said the Cathedral ceilings are equipped with infrared smoke detectors, which can be activated if smoke or any other object blocks their signals.

Early morning scare

Police dealt with another bomb scare early yesterday morning when a suspicious pipe was found by Pitt police patrolling on the Fifth Avenue side of the William Pitt Union, Pitt spokesman John Fedele said.

The device was turned over to the city police’s bomb squad because it resembled an explosive. It was determined not to be a threat after the bomb squad detonated it at a secure location off campus.