The small chemical fire that broke out at the Jackson Avenue Center on Monday upended Jenny Hurdle’s day as director of Testing Services. She came back from her lunch break and saw the entire building had been evacuated.
“All of my coworkers were outside,” Hurdle said. “Human resources, general services, everyone was there.”
At first, she believed it to be a drill that she was unaware of, but as soon as the waves of emergency vehicles began to speed into the parking lot, she became aware that something more serious was happening.
The fire in the chemistry lab was caused when a student knocked over a container of highly flammable chemicals next to an open bunsen burner. The fire was rapidly extinguished, but there was still a threat from the toxic gasses and smoke that were present and needed to be ventilated from the area.
The 911 call was placed at 12:40 p.m., and Oxford Fire Department Station 1’s Engine 4 was on the scene at 12:41 p.m. The Oxford fire crew arrived on the scene before the University Police Department.
The crews of Engine 4, Truck 4, Rescue 3 and Truck 1 were greeted at the scene by a faculty member who said that he was supervising the chemistry lab when the fire started. Immediately after, crew members put on their self-contained breathing apparatus, also known as “tanks,” and entered the building under the information that this was to be treated as a chemical fire.
Oxford Fire Department Battalion Chief Larry McKinney oversees crew operations on a day-to-day basis. This includes manning the battalion truck and filing reports of fires or incidents requiring any truck on the scene.
“Basically when we got there, we knew that our main priority was ventilating the area,” McKinney said. “The crews put on their tanks and went in to evacuate the building and begin ventilation.”
The two teams present from Station 1 and Station 4 entered from opposite ends of the building to do a clean and thorough sweep of the area.
After making sure the building was properly evacuated, the crew identified that the fire was already fully extinguished by the time they had got there with a fire extinguisher.
“Once we realized it was a chemical fire, we put on our tanks and proceeded to clear the building as we’re supposed to do,” Thweete said. “We knew that our priority was to clear the building.”
Once the building was properly evacuated, the fire department began the ventilation process to clear the possibly airborne toxic fumes and smoke that was visible and had filled the lab. The fire department closed off the building to the public for the rest of the day on Monday.
The Testing Center, under the direction of Hurdle, has fully recovered. Testing appointments that were upended by the fire have also been rescheduled.
The University of Mississippi sent out multiple alerts about the building’s closure via email around 3 p.m. The Jackson Avenue Center was closed for ventilation by the Oxford Fire Department and was reopened for regular use on Tuesday, Oct. 11, at 8 a.m.
