The Barometer Online

Issue date: 3/14/07 Section: News

Media Credit: John Castle Gilbert Hall was closed Tuesday due to the loss of an electrical power source. The building is fully functioning today.

Chemistry building Gilbert Hall was completely shut down Tuesday morning when the power went off for no clear reason.

The building was off-limits to both faculty and students while investigations and repairs took place. Some classes were canceled while a few professors decided to post signs relocating their classes to different classrooms.

"They had the building closed off. Entrances were being blocked with personnel and police tape," OSU spokesman Todd Simmons said.

OSU's electricians received a call around 7:30 a.m. when the power went out in the building. OSU health and safety inspectors set up outside Gilbert to ensure nobody entered the building without clearance. When the power outage occurred, the chemistry building had to be shut down because it was deemed unsafe.

"Fire alarms weren't functioning, smoke detectors weren't running - the building is unsafe for students and faculty," said Dan Kermoyan of OSU Health and Safety.

A technician also noticed that the fire alarm from Gilbert was sending out a trouble signal because it was not working properly.

The building service - the source that provides electrical power - lost power to one of its three phases, causing the power failure in the rest of the building.

Pacific Power, OSU's main power supplier, responded immediately, as did an incident response team. A temporary generator was used while electricians worked to get power back online.

"The temporary repair is in place. We're going to try to accomplish getting a new building service as soon as possible, but it's no small task," said Scott Caul, an electrician from facilities services.

The building service had been having problems over the last week and had finally burned out Tuesday morning.

Temporary repairs were conducted throughout the day until 4:30 p.m., when the final sweep was conducted to guarantee the building's safety.

Gilbert Hall was the last building designed by John Bennes for OSU in 1939. The service breaker itself was approximately 25 to 30 years old but was not expected to burn out so soon. Electricians plan to install a new building service soon, hopefully over spring break.

"The possibility exists that any building can lose power," said Richard Brookes, an electrician from facilities services. "A lot of these buildings are old."

"Buildings like this need emergency back-up power to prevent future incidents like this," Kermoyan said.

"We had no alternative than to shut the building down," said Andy Gray from OSU health and safety. "It's a real hassle."

The main electrical switch that had worn out was replaced and power has been restored successfully.

Gilbert was re-opened to the public and fully operational by 5 p.m. Tuesday. Classes will continue as scheduled as long as the temporary power provider continues working.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools