The Cristol Chemistry and Biochemistry Building on the University of Colorado at Boulder campus will reopen Wednesday morning under normal hours, CU officials said Tuesday.
A laboratory in room 120 of the building experienced a fume hood fire in the early hours of Tuesday morning that closed the building all day Tuesday. The organic chemistry labs and faculty offices will remain closed to facilitate cleanup.
Faculty, staff and students requiring access to these areas will need a special security escort to retrieve any lab work or other items because special barriers have been set up to close off the rooms.
The Chem 140 lecture hall in the chemistry complex will be open for classes and examinations on schedule beginning Wednesday morning.
The cause of the fire is still being investigated, but preliminary indications point to a long-term experiment being conducted in the laboratory. The experiment involves a slow chemical reaction that requires approximately three months to proceed to completion. The same experiment had been run in the laboratory previously without incident.
Officials do not believe anyone was in the building at the time the alarm went off at 5:55 a.m. Sprinklers contained the fire to the fume hood apparatus, and Boulder firefighters put out the remaining flames, which had not spread to any other part of the building.
The Boulder Fire Department and CU Environmental Health and Safety officials completed walk-throughs of the building and determined it would be safe for general occupancy beginning Wednesday.
CU deployed the Campus Alerts text-messaging system twice on Tuesday: once at 6:43 a.m. and again at 12:30 p.m. to alert faculty, staff and students that the Cristol and Biochemistry Complex was experiencing an emergency, and to inform them that the building would remain closed all day on Tuesday for cleanup efforts.
Faculty, staff and students who are signed up for the service and did not receive a text message on Tuesday should notify the IT Service Center at 303-735-HELP.
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