Ohio University’s Facilities Management is working to assess and repair the damage from a small explosion and fire that occurred at the Lausche Heating Plant on Monday night.
The explosion — caused by a chilled water valve that failed to reopen, causing a pump to overheat — resulted in an initial estimated damage cost of $300,000.
It has not been determined how the damage costs will be paid for, but it will likely be covered by insurance, said Katie Quaranta, an OU spokeswoman.
A contractor was working on Lausche’s air systems, which control the chilled water valve and other pumps in the building. When the air systems were turned back on, the chilled water valve did not, said Mike Gebeke, executive director of Facilities Management.
The valve did not have a sensor to tell Facilities that it had not reopened, Gebeke said.
“Any time you are dealing with high voltage, natural gas and coal dust, there is a small possibility of a failure,” Gebeke said.
The Athens Fire Department was called to the scene at 8:32 p.m. Monday because of heavy smoke that permeated the third floor of the plant, said Athens Fire Department Lieutenant Bob Rymer.
Rymer said no one from the Athens Fire Department was injured and that he received no reports of Emergency Medical Service dispatched from the fire. The fire department was able to leave the scene by 11:32 p.m., Rymer said.
OU’s Critical Incident Response Team was assembled at 9:30 p.m. to assess the situation and form a contingency plan in case OU was unable to restore power by Tuesday, said Peter Trentacoste, director of Residential Housing.
About 10 percent of OU’s residence halls lost power because of the explosion, but Trentacoste said Facilities was able to restore all electricity and steam-heated water early Tuesday morning.
“Considering the situation that was at hand, that came together about as good as could be expected,” he said.
The emergency generator that powers Lausche was turned off at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, according to an OU news release.
The Board of Trustees will discuss a design schematic for the replacement of the Lausche Heating Plant, which is scheduled to be built by 2016 for $91 million, on Thursday.
With the new plant, Gebeke said the entire campus should be able to have power restored within an hour after a complete outage because of its cogeneration capabilities.
“Last night was a good example as to why that (replacement) might be a good idea,” Trentacoste said.
dk123111@ohiou.edu
@DanielleRose84
