Laboratory Fire Prompts Evacuation at Cal State

About 1,000 students and faculty members evacuated Cal State Fullerton’s oldest and largest building Thursday morning when smoke from a fire in a chemistry laboratory began spreading throughout the building.

Campus safety personnel and Fullerton firefighters responded to an 8:40 a.m. alarm from McCarthy Hall, a six-story building with a full basement containing classrooms, faculty offices and chemistry, physics and computer labs.

The fire broke out on the fourth floor in a chemical drying oven in a faculty research lab, city of Fullerton spokeswoman Sylvia Palmer said. The flames were contained within the oven, but Palmer said heavy smoke had filled the lab by the time firefighters arrived.

Hazardous-materials teams from the Newport Beach, Huntington Beach and Santa Ana Fire departments were summoned to help determine what chemicals were in the area before water could be used to douse the flames.

There were no injuries reported in the incident.

A water pipe on the building’s first floor sprung a leak as firefighters hooked up their lines and turned the water on. Water from the pipe ran down a stairway to the basement, where a computer lab and a small amount of radioactive material are located, Palmer said.

However, firefighters were able to keep the water from reaching the computers or the radioactive material, which is kept for the physics department, Palmer said.

Besides the water leak, school officials said the building’s alarm system failed to alert occupants to the danger.

“When it was triggered, the silent alarm went to public safety and they responded in 2 minutes,” said Jerry Keating, university public affairs director. “But the bells (in the building) did not go off as they would have normally. We are looking at a possible electrical failure. So part of it worked and the other part did not work as it’s supposed to.”

Keating said that when campus public safety officers arrived, they evacuated the building.

Although the fire’s cause had not yet been determined, Fullerton Capt. Van Goyng said the fire may have been triggered by an electrical problem or a short that ignited a safety shield on the oven door.

McCarthy Hall remained closed for the rest of the day while the building was being ventilated, Keating said. The building will be reopened today.

Keating said many students would be inconvenienced because this is the last week of regular classes and a time when many semester projects are turned in and reviews for next week’s final exams are given.

The fire caused $3,500 damage to the oven and smoke caused $15,000 damage to the lab, Goyng estimated. Keating said there was no figure yet on the amount of water damage.