By Brian Ruth
The Scene staff
A fire alarm that sounded at Forest Park about 3 p.m. on July 2 wasn’t a drill, but campus police aren’t saying who set if off.
“The alarm was inadvertently activated by somebody,” said Police Chief Richard Banahan. “It was pulled by accident.”
Banahan declined to confirm reports that a juvenile set off the alarm.
Forest Park students, faculty and staff followed procedure by clearing out of classroom buildings and waiting outside.
St. Louis city police and fire departments responded.
“The campus has an emergency management team consisting of about 40 people from the college and local city departments,” Banahan said. “The team was aware of the alarm almost immediately.”
Once the team confirmed that the alarm was accidentally set off, officials gave students, faculty and staff the OK to return to class. They had been standing outside about 30 minutes.
“There was a very small amount of people on campus at the time,” Banahan said.