Many San Jose State students evacuated selective campus buildings as part of a fire drill early Thursday afternoon.
University Police Department Chief Gina Di Napoli said in an interview with the Spartan Daily that the drill is not only for fires, but for other hazardous events as well.
“[The drill] could be for anything, you know what if there was an earthquake right now?” Di Naopli said. “What if we had a shooter, what if there was . . . A major flooding.”
Napoli said having drills is important so that UPD has a plan to enact in case of a real emergency.
“We do drills, we know where people are going to be, we know where we need to get those people to and then there's the after planning,” Di Napoli said after describing possible crisis scenarios.
The fire drill occurred around 2:45 p.m. which was a passing period for many students.
“They picked a good time to do it,” design studies junior Erica Bechtold said. “It's between most people's classes so it's not disrupting to many people. It is an inconvenience, but I see why they do it for safety reasons.”
Di Napoli said she thinks the drills are important and should come at an inconvenience to better prepare people for disasters.
“Have you ever heard of a hazard or a bad incident when it is convenient?” Di Napoli said. “It's better to do [drills] when there’s not a major emergency than when [there] is.”
The alarms shut off and students entered the buildings around 3:10 p.m.
Contributing reporting by Gia Pham
