The Alarm

SuziQ

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Discuss all things about the alarm here.
 
Do they know who set off the alarm? I had read it was not connected to Annie Le murder (and read that it was).

Did Raymond C. leave the building when the alarm went off?

What did the FBI spokesperson say about the alarm and how does it differ from: (At 12:40 p.m. on Tuesday, a fire alarm sounded in the building. The special agent in charge of the FBI in Connecticut, Kimberly Mertz, said at a press conference Saturday that the alarm was caused by a release of steam from a laboratory hood. She said it was possible that the steam was intentionally released by a person. http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/un...e-suspect-it-/)http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/u...-body-found-10-amistad-st-police-suspect-it-/
 
Bringing some of my posts over from the other thread.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Noway [ame="http://websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4165882#post4165882"]
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http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/un...e-suspect-it-/


Did RC leave the building when the alarm went off? Was it a way for him to have a "reason" to leave the building?

Sorry if this has been discussed. I'm coming in late and have not read all the posts.


Well it's being reported this morning that he did exit the building and was acting odd. But reporting on this case has been horrible.

On that note, would you like some salt or Mrs. Dash with that? lol.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChasingMoxie [ame="http://websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4165833#post4165833"]
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I'm new on this case but is it possible that he attempted to burn some evidence? Maybe that was his plan, and it backfired. Just an idea.

I don't have the exact quote handy, that the FBI spokesman made. IIRC, she said the alarm was set off because of steam, and it could have been done by a human. She would not state whether it was intentional or not.

So we are left to wonder if the steam was created purposely to set off the alarm.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Noway [ame="http://websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4165847#post4165847"]
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IIRC, the alarm was triggered by steam.

ETA:
At 12:40 p.m. on Tuesday, a fire alarm sounded in the building. The special agent in charge of the FBI in Connecticut, Kimberly Mertz, said at a press conference Saturday that the alarm was caused by a release of steam from a laboratory hood. She said it was possible that the steam was intentionally released by a person.

http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/un...e-suspect-it-/


I believe the FBI spokesman said piece of equipment. There was never a mention of what that equipment was.
 
We don't know if someone caused the alarm let alone who. It could have been an equipment malfunction and completely unrelated. We aren't being told.
 
We don't know if someone caused the alarm let alone who. It could have been an equipment malfunction and completely unrelated. We aren't being told.

Agreed. We don't know squat.

What we (think) we know:

The alarm is not the type that has human activated switches on the wall (i.e. a pull, or break glass switch). It can only be set off by some environmental event.

The event that set off the alarm was the release of steam from a laboratory hood.

The alarm went off at 12:40pm.


What we do not know:

In which lab did the alarm go off?

Who exited the building? Where did they exit?
Note: there is a report RC was seen exiting and "acted" strange.

Who went back into the building?

Were alarms frequent?
 
I don't know how to pull my posts about the alarm to here... could someone be willing to do that? Thank you.
 
By amyb80

Quote:
Originally Posted by SuziQ [ame="http://websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4165853#post4165853"]
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I don't have the exact quote handy, that the FBI spokesman made. IIRC, she said the alarm was set off because of steam, and it could have been done by a human. She would not state whether it was intentional or not.

So we are left to wonder if the steam was created purposely to set off the alarm.

Can someone help me here? The steam that set off the alarm... was it ever stated where in the building the alarm originated? As a former maintenance supervisor at a 220-bed nursing home facility... I was constantly testing, working on and documenting events that involved a fire panel (a very large box that is the main control panel and receiver for all sprinklers and detectors) within each building. There were major differences between both fire panels.. one was from the dark ages and had only 8 zones marked whereas there were more zones that needed independence from residental zones imo but the other fire panel was very up to date and was much easier to work with. I would have to be inclined to believe this Yale building, given its age, had a fairly sophisticated fire panel. I do know that in the instance an alarm is sounded most people run to exits but a handful of people have to head to the alarm. I and other maintenance employees were trained in how to read the fire panel to determine quickly the location to see where the alarm originated and then report to the area to assess and assist in quelling the problem that caused the alarm to go off until the fire department arrived and whether a false alarm or not they always arrived.
 
Amy, I think you are right about being able to tell what and where the alarm originated. I'm sure LE knows more. Unfortunately they aren't sharing what they know with us.
 
Thank you very much for bringing what I wrote over to here Suzie. I had also said something later about an incident that involved a boiler's temp value activating (which is a blessing otherwise the boiler would simply explode from built up pressure) and maybe I should mention it here. I am not sure they announced that an autoclave caused the steam but if there were construction workers within the building working on rennovation, could it be possible an incident like mine caused the alarm?
 
(At 12:40 p.m. on Tuesday, a fire alarm sounded in the building. The special agent in charge of the FBI in Connecticut, Kimberly Mertz, said at a press conference Saturday that the alarm was caused by a release of steam from a laboratory hood. She said it was possible that the steam was intentionally released by a person. http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/un...e-suspect-it-/)http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/u...-body-found-10-amistad-st-police-suspect-it-/

Okay, so I had no idea what a laboratory hood was for the most part. It's explained in pretty understandable terms in this PDF: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...1evesQs8Tl4uyc3mw&sig2=krtv4NNKVE6M4XGIRJTKcA

These hoods are designed to control the release of fumes (presumably during experiments/procedures conducted at the given lab station) - based on the diagrams and explanation of their use, I can't really foresee a situation where one might release the fumes or steam from the hood. I mean, if they're designed to contain and exhaust, it would typically be to prevent that very scenario from occurring. Am I understanding this right?

With that information, I'm of the opinion that IF it was not a faulty-sensor that triggered the alarm, and IF steam did in fact exit the hood into the lab, then barring major malfunction (like malfunction to the degree that exactly the opposite of the designed function of the hood occurs) it was an intentional act to release the steam and trip the alarm. Hopefully this makes sense. I tried to highlight the necessary assumptions required for the conclusion. I'm not a scientist (heh, clearly) so please let me know if I'm missing a bunch of obvious info, it wouldn't surprise me in the least. :)
 
Amy here is the other post you were talking about. I was about to bring it over when I got a phone call....teenagers....gotta love them.....

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Paulette [ame="http://websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4166022#post4166022"]
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Do you know why/what would activare this sensor?

I believe they are correct saying steam caused it. In my experience, I had a hi-temp value activate on a water boiler once due to it reaching temps that exceeded the limit of 250 degrees within the boiler. The sensors in the laundry area (where the boiler was located) activated the fire alarm. Anything that was plastic in that room waffled from the heat of the steam.
 
I wonder if the agent used the term "laboratory hood" incorrectly for the equipment that gave off the steam that triggered the alarm. Any lab people know of such laboratory hoods that give off steam? I only know lab hoods to exhaust fumes and filter air. I believe there are some chemical fume hoods that could trigger an alarm if they are not clearing the fumes adequately. Could a boiler system ever be called a lab hood? I only know of an autoclave giving off steam in your typical lab.
 
I wonder if the agent used the term "laboratory hood" incorrectly for the equipment that gave off the steam that triggered the alarm. Any lab people know of such laboratory hoods that give off steam? I only know lab hoods to exhaust fumes and filter air. I believe there are some chemical fume hoods that could trigger an alarm if they are not clearing the fumes adequately. Could a boiler system ever be called a lab hood? I only know of an autoclave giving off steam in your typical lab.

The agent never stated "laboratory hood". She said equipment. That's something the Yale Daily News reported without sighting a source.
 
I work in a lab and under a hood all the time. There can be equipment or experiments in the hood that create steam, but I've never heard of an alarm being attached to a hood. You can turn off the air flow in the hood and that would cause a buildup of gases (or whatever), but the alarm thing really boggles my mind.
 
I'm not familiar in the least with lab's nor the equipment being discussed, but for those who are - I have a question: If someone were climbing up on a piece of equipment to stick items in the ceiling tiles, is there any place on that type of equipment you could accidentally step which would cause steam to release??
 
I'm not familiar in the least with lab's nor the equipment being discussed, but for those who are - I have a question: If someone were climbing up on a piece of equipment to stick items in the ceiling tiles, is there any place on that type of equipment you could accidentally step which would cause steam to release??

I'm sure there is something that would cause steam to be released, but we have nothing like that in the lab I work in. Do we know for sure it was steam and not vapors from a liquid nitrogen tank or something similar?
 
Pure speculation here.

Autoclave (or other piece of equipment that is capable of producing large "belch" of steam) has an exhaust fan/hood over it. (Picture the exhaust fan/hood over a kitchen stove.)

Fan is SUPPOSED to be on when autoclave is on. However, in this case someone turns fan off. Autoclave "belches", perhaps when cycle is finished? and steam sets off alarm. (I don't know about you people, but if I fry anything and forget to turn on the exhaust over the stove, it trips the alarm.)

My question is where this piece of equipment is located. If it's in the basement, the perp might have tripped it intentionally - but if it's upstairs, would an animal tech have had access to that part of the building?

It MIGHT just be a coincidence - if it was, it might have interrupted the perps attempt to clean up/dispose of the body.
 

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