Basement Fire at Widener Causes Temporary Evacuation

An overheated water pump filled the sub-basement of Widener Library with smoke yesterday evening, setting off an automatic alarm and causing a half-hour evacuation of the building. No books were damaged and no one was injured in the incident, Thomas V. Scott, deputy chief of the Cambridge Fire Department, said last night.

Two engine companies, a hook-and-ladder and more than a dozen members of the Cambridge Fire Department responded to the alarm at 6:45 p.m. The firefighters cleared the building of smoke with electric ventilators before allowing students and library staff to re-enter Widener at 7:15 p.m.

Several of the approximately 100 students and staff waiting to re-enter the library after the evacuation said they had smelled smoke throughout the first floor and portions of the second floor.

William Osborne, a library security officer who discovered the burned-out pump, said last night the sub-basement was "flooded" with smoke.

The pump, which distributes chilled water throughout the building, probably burned out in the early afternoon, but it took several hours for enough smoke to build up to set off the automatic alarm, Scott said. The pump's motor will have to be rewound, but there was no "major" damage, he added.