Saturday night the dance floors of The Tabard coed fraternity and Theta Delta Chi fraternity were full of party-goers straight out if the '70s and '80s. But at both houses the party was cut short because of false fire alarms.
According to Theta Delt '03 president Paul Schmitt, the fraternity has had troubles with people pulling their fire alarms in the past, leading to a premature ending to some parties, but that was not the case on Saturday.
"Usually they just get pulled, but we moved the one that always gets pulled into a more visible place and added a plastic cover to keep people from pulling it," Schmitt said.
However, Saturday night's alarms were both caused by smoke detectors, according to Schmitt and Tabard President Maia Josebachvili.
"The fire department said that it was a smoke detector on the second floor," Josebachvili said. "Someone may have been smoking a cigarette directly under one of the detectors."
Both houses had to be completely cleared out when the alarms went off so that the fire department could inspect the house. However, while Tabard's party continued after an approximately 30-minute hiatus, Theta Delt ended their party after the house had been inspected.
But Tabard's party also ended earlier than scheduled after Safety and Security became concerned that the house had too many people in it, according to Josebachvili.
"S and S hung around to make sure that there were not too many people in the house," Josebachvili said. "People were trying to climb in the windows and go in the side door, and then S and S shut the party down."
According to an estimate by the Hanover fire department, they receive 250 to 300 false alarms on the Dartmouth campus each year.
Safety and Security could not be reached for comment.
