Jeff Richgels | Wisconsin State Journal
The UW-Madison Engineering Hall, 1415 Engineering Dr., was evacuated due to a fire Friday morning and will be closed all day, authorities reported.
The fire first was reported in a UW-Madison WiscAlert posted at 7:50 a.m. that asked people to avoid the area.
The Madison Fire Department said in a statement about 8:45 a.m. that fire crews were sent to the scene at 7:33 a.m. to investigate an alarm and arrived at 7:36 a.m. as UW-Madison police officers confirmed a fire on the fifth floor of the building. Additional fire crews then were sent to the scene.
The fire was knocked down at 7:49 a.m. with everyone evacuated safely. The statement said fire crews were continuing to clear smoke from the building.
Madison Fire Department spokesperson Cynthia Schuster said late Friday morning that the Fire Investigation Team determined the fire was unintentional and a result of maintenance work being done on one of the building’s air handling units.
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Workers were brazing a pipe in a large air handling unit when a spark came in contact with a filter. The workers used several extinguishers to attempt to put out the fire, but it grew too quickly for the extinguishers to stop it.
The workers pulled the building’s fire alarm.
Fire damage was contained to the air handling unit in question. Other air handling units pushed smoke into other floors of the building, but the fire did not spread.
Fire crews cleared the scene at 10:46 a.m., Schuster said.
Dean Ian Robertson of the UW Engineering Department said in a message to the campus community that all classes scheduled in Engineering Hall were canceled Friday and all classes in other engineering buildings were canceled until noon.
“If you have an office or laboratory in the building, please work with your supervisor to make alternate arrangements to complete your work remotely,” Robertson said in the statement. “If you were working in Engineering Hall and needed to evacuate, you can meet on the third floor of Wendt Commons.”
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