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Tonight's 'Explosion' at UCLA Appears to be a Prank

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In what apparently is a student prank at UCLA's Hedrick Summit, a residence building, was cause for alarm when the incident was reported as an explosion followed by a strong smell. "When our resources got on the scene, they found a quart sized soap bottle that appeared to have been tossed from an upper level of the building--based on the splash pattern," d'Lisa Davies of the LA Fire Department explained over the phone.

UCLA officials twittered that it was "possibly a 2-litre bottle dry-ice or soap based prank device" and that the situation was minor and contained with police investigating.

Related: UCLA's Emergency Management Office recently launched their UCLABruinAlert twitter account and tonight's incident was the first time they had a chance to use it. Back in December, they optimistically bragged that they were "the first University in California to successfully integrate & link all existing mass warning systems to a single launch platform."

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