Kenan Lab fire causes $2300 in damages, but no injuries

UNC’s hottest set of drawers Sunday night may have been located in room B427 of Kenan Laboratories — the site of a small fire.

No one was hurt in the fire although there was $800 in damage to cabinets and $1,500 in glassware in the lab, said Randy Young, spokesman for the Department of Public Safety.

And the cause of the fire has yet to be determined.

He said his heart sank when he was told a fire alarm had gone off at 10:30 p.m.

Brookhart said he said he was relieved that the fire was out half an hour later.

“They were here johnny-on-the-spot,” he said of the response to the alarm.

Billy Mitchell, UNC’s campus fire marshal, said Tuesday that the Department of Environment, Health and Safety is still investigating the cause of the fire.

Michael Findlater, a post-doctorate student who works in the lab, said he was the last one there, around 6:30 p.m.

Findlater said when he left for the night, everything in the lab seemed to be fine.

The fire was contained to a drawer in the lab and the cause of the fire might have been a recently-installed oven next to the drawer, Brookhart said.

He said the oven’s electrical wiring could have ignited chemicals being stored in the drawer.

But he said office consensus on the cause was far from certain.

“We all stood here for an hour puzzling to figure out what it was,” Brookhart said.

All that remains of the minor blaze is a smoke-stained gap in the cabinet where the drawer once was.

The blackened outlines of the drawers remain on the thick barriers to either side of the cabinet.

Brookhart said he thinks those barriers may have contained the fire and prevented further damage.

Brookhart said the department had cleared the debris from the fire earlier in the day.

Although the fire cut off power to the bench near the drawer, he said it would take little more than a week to repair the damage.

He said a replacement drawer might come from a lab in another Kenan Laboratories tower that is being renovated.

In the meantime, he said any work being conducted on the affected bench will be halted until plumbing and power can be restored.

He added that chemicals will not be stored in the drawer next to the oven in the future.

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.