Students Return To Residential Halls After UC Berkeley Explosion
BERKELEY (CBS SF) -- Eleven buildings on the University of California at Berkeley campus that remained without power following an explosion Monday evening did not hold classes Tuesday, UC Berkeley officials said.
Classes and events that were scheduled to meet in Alumni House, Bancroft Library, California Hall, Central Heating Plant, Doe Library, Durant Hall, Dwinelle Hall, Dwinelle Annex, Edwards Track (East and West areas), Haas Pavilion and EH&S Facility, were not being held Tuesday, according to university officials.
Classes in other campus buildings will take place as regularly scheduled, officials said.
UC Berkeley Evacuated Because of Campus-Wide Power Failure
Students are advised to check with their academic departments for more information about rescheduling of classes and other events.
Employees who work in buildings that were still without power Tuesday should check in with their supervisors about reporting to work.
The campus-wide power outage began at about 4:40 p.m. on Monday, university officials said. School officials said Tuesday that the blast could have been tied to an underground copper wire theft last week.
The power system failure was followed by an underground explosion and fire in an underground steam tunnel between California and Durant halls about 6:40 p.m. that shrouded the campus in smoke, university officials said.
The explosion led to a call for an evacuation of campus. The fire was extinguished by 8:15 p.m., university officials said.
One student sustained minor injuries, was transported to a medical facility and later released, according to university officials.
During the outage, about 20 people were stuck in elevators in affected buildings, but all were freed by 8:30 p.m., according to university officials.
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