Chiller plant catches fire
A fire broke out at a University chilled-water facility Thursday afternoon, sending black smoke billowing across a Carolina-blue sky but doing little to disrupt campus services. The blaze began shortly before 4 p.m. in an external tower of the North Chiller Plant, which is located next to the Student Health Service building. The Chapel Hill Fire Department sent three engines, a ladder truck and 22 firefighters to the scene, according to a University press release. The flames had diminished by 4:30 p.m., and the blaze was under control just after 5 p.m. All employees were accounted for after the incident, said Randy Young, spokesman for the Department of Public Safety. The fire department still isn't sure what started the blaze and will continue its investigation today. The North Chiller Plant is one of three chiller plants that supply chilled water for air conditioning to University facilities. It is the oldest chiller facility on campus. Jim McAdam, manager of chilled-water systems for UNC, said the fire was confined to two of the six cells on one of the plant's towers. The tower was inoperative and wouldn't have gone back online until April or May, he added. "We have a lot of excess capacity this time of year, so we didn't need it," McAdam said. He said the North Chiller Plant alone provides more than 10,000 tons of cooling capacity - "tons" in this case being a unit to measure refrigeration, not weight. The tower that burned provided about a third of that tonnage - a significant amount, but not enough to disrupt service on a day when all other chiller plants ran normally, and the peak demand for campus cooling was between 6,000 and 7,000 tons. As dark clouds stretched across campus Thursday, a crowd of onlookers rushed to the scene from all around. Freshman Brad Lockwood said he was walking by the Bell Tower about 4 p.m. with freshman Jordan Fieldstein when they saw the smoke. "When we got over here, there was no one," Lockwood said. He said the fire department and police arrived on the scene within five minutes. "You could see the woodwork around the chiller was on fire," Fieldstein said. "It was spreading and growing." Police taped off the area around the plant, which trapped more than 50 cars in the Bell Tower parking lot. Buildings surrounding the plant were evacuated on a voluntary basis, and Student Health Service continued to operate on a normal schedule. Ray Dubose, director of campus energy services, said the biggest concern about the fire is getting the North Chiller Plant back up to speed by this summer. Workers will be at the plant today to talk with McAdam about how quickly - and how cheaply - UNC can get the plant running at full capacity. Dubose said he thinks University workers will get things under control. "This is their job, and they have a lot of expertise in doing this," he said. "So I have no concerns that we'll be able to resolve this." Assistant University Editor Stephanie Newton contributed to this article. Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.