Faculty, staff and students visiting the library were evacuated when steam released from a busted pipe in the fire sprinkler control valve set off the building’s fire alarm Thursday afternoon.

University police responding to the fire alarm were on the scene and people were sitting outside on the steps of the library while Russell Kintz and Ted Echols, employees from Physical Plant, worked on the problem in the fire sprinkler control valve room under the library, which had been slightly flooded with water from the broken pipe.

Kintz said the steam that set off the alarm was originally hot water, but became steam once it was outside the busted pipe.

Syed Naqvi, a senior accounting major, said he never thought there was anything to be worried. Naqvi was in the library when the alarm went off and had to exit the building.

“I thought it was a drill,” Naqvi said.