The Red and Black

Kenneth Scott, associate vice president of the University's Environmental Safety Division, holds a Material Safety Data Sheets notebook damaged in the fire. Each lab on campus contains a similar book, detailing the contents and chemicals of each lab in ca [Click to enlarge]

Assistant shift commander Fire Chief Mike Link (left) exits the main entrance of the Pharmacy Building with Lt. Tony Jeffers (middle) and firefighter Jason Blach (right) after stopping the fire early in the morning. (Jessica Lowry * The Red & Black) [Click to enlarge]

The classes have been relocated to various places across campus, said University spokesman Chuck Toney.

Students with classes in the Pharmacy Building may visit (www.uga.edu/news/artman/publish/pharmacy.html) to find out where their classes have been relocated.

While the cause of the fire is unknown, there is "no reason to believe it's more than accidental," said Chuck Horton, University Police chief.

After receiving a call at 7:06 a.m., University Police notified the Athens-Clarke County Fire Department that fire alarms were going off inside the building, said Maj.

Jimmy Williamson, assistant University Police chief.

When the fire department arrived, firefighters conducted a search of the building and encountered "heavy smoke conditions" coming from a third-floor lab, said Chief Mike Link, shift commander for the ACC Fire department, at the scene Wednesday morning.

After briefly waiting until the University notified them that there was nothing chemically dangerous in the lab, Link said firefighters entered to extinguish the flames.

The fire, which was found near some refrigerators in the lab, was "basically out by the time we got there," he said.

A water line runs directly across the ceiling above where the fire was, Link said, and the heat melted part of the pipe joints allowing water to escape.

While fire damage is contained to the lab, there is extensive water damage to the first and second floors, said University spokesman Steve Bell.

The ceiling also collapsed in some places, and there is smoke damage in the hallways, he said.

There were no injuries, Williamson said.

The lab was being used for ongoing experiments in the pharmaceutical biomedical sciences, said Srinivasa Muralidhara, research coordinator for the lab.

Students were doing experiments in the lab until about 12:30 a.m. Tuesday night, he said, but no one was in the lab Wednesday morning.

Muralidhara said the experiments involved giving animals different chemicals and recording how their bodies reacted, he said. There was no heat involved.

Lt. Tony Jeffers of the ACC Fire Department said he saw no signs of any animals in the room after the fire.

Muralidhara said he hopes to pick up research again in a month, but "if the machines are not operational, we can't do anything until they are replaced."

"It's terrible to think ... we have no way of knowing (what was damaged)," he said, while watching crews begin the clean-up process.

Disaster Services Inc. (DSI), the same company that is cleaning up the Main Library after its fire in July, will be working with the ACC Fire Department and the Physical Plant to minimize damage to the Pharmacy Building, said Mark Komich, chief executive officer of DSI.

DSI already has begun removing water from the building, he said.

Members of the Environmental Safety Division (ESD) also were on the scene to monitor the safety of the firefighters and the building, said Ken Scott, associate vice president of ESD.

The hazardous materials team monitored the building for radiation and only picked up "very, very low levels," which would not have been a hazard, he said.

The cause of the fire still was under investigation as of press time.

-- Contributing: Purvi Patel

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