Fire in WSU Tri-Cities lab building leads to temporary evacuation
Three buildings at Washington State University Tri-Cities were evacuated Monday afternoon after a fire broke out in a research building on the north Richland campus.
The incident happened about 1:45 p.m. in the Bioproducts, Sciences and Engineering Lab, or BSEL. A cylinder of compressed gas exploded unexpectedly, sparking the fire, said Richland fire Chief Tom Huntington. It was doused by the building’s sprinkler system.
The gas was nontoxic.
No injuries were reported at BSEL, which is largely a research facility, said Jeffrey Dennison, university spokesman.
No one was in the laboratory at the time of the incident and it is still unclear what caused the explosion, according to a WSU Tri-Cities news release.
John Mancinelli, chief of staff and operations at WSU Tri-Cities, said emergency protocols were promptly initiated on campus.
“Everyone responded exactly as they were trained to,” he said in a news release. “Emergency response arrived swiftly and everyone was evacuated in a timely manner. We will continue to do our due diligence to ensure a safe and secure facility.”
An explosion “involving a chemical processing reactor” was reported to the fire department at 1:46 p.m. Fire officials arrived on campus at 1:55 p.m., according to the university’s news release. The BSEL lab and WSU Tri-Cities are non-nuclear facilities, the release said.
Students and faculty were cleared from the East and West classroom buildings, which are located next to the research building, but they were directed to return to their classrooms after about 15 minutes.
Fire officials still were on the campus at 3:30 p.m., checking to ensure there were no secondary spills or issues with other chemicals as a result of the explosion.
BSEL remains closed and all labs have been canceled, but other WSU Tri-Cities classes will continue as usual. WSU Tri-Cities encourages students to log onto the Blackboard website to see if BSEL lectures have been moved to a new location.
WSU Tri-Cities officials said a thorough investigation and follow up will be conducted in the coming days.
This story was originally published November 9, 2015 at 3:01 PM with the headline "Fire in WSU Tri-Cities lab building leads to temporary evacuation."