Founders Memorial Library has been closed the rest of today and until 7:30 a.m. Monday due to the suspicion of a malfunctioning fire alarm system sensor.

At about 2:50 p.m., a fire alarm went off but firefighters were not able to locate evidence of a fire in the building. This led to the suspicion of a malfunctioning fire alarm system sensor, said NIU Spokesperson Joe King.

“To fix that they have to shut off the fire alarm system and they can’t have people in that building without the fire alarm hooked up in case there is an actual fire,” King said. “The decision was made to close the building for the day, go through, check all the sensors, find the problem and have it reopened for tomorrow.”

About 100 people were evacuated, including junior accounting major Jordan Vosicky.

Vosicky said he had left his laptop charger, notes and folder inside and had been waiting outside for 40 minutes before a friend and employee of Founders Memorial Library was able to bring his stuff out.

“In essence, [I am frustrated], because I don’t see why someone [couldn’t] retrieve our stuff if the employees are in there… or if an electrician is coming in,” Vosicky said. “There are other resources on campus I can use, but it is a little frustrating.”

Vosicky said he did not want to spend time gathering his stuff in case there was something serious going on.

“Initially we were kind of freaked out, and I was trying to listen in to what [the fire alarm] was saying,” Vosicky said. “It didn’t describe what the alarm was going off for.”

King said once the decision is made to evacuate the building and shut it down nobody can get back in until the building reopens again.

“This way no one is in or out, things will be perfectly safe and they will be able to retrieve [their belongings] tomorrow morning when the building reopens at 7:30 a.m.,” King said.