An engineer from Squad 87, a hazardous materials squad, speaks with other firefighters following Monday’s incident at the Center for Health Sciences.
[UPDATED at 4:01 p.m.: Employees have begun to return to the Center for Health Sciences building, with the exception of the fourth and fifth floors, after a small laboratory fire on the fifth floor this morning, authorities said.
No injuries were reported in the fire, which was reported to the Los Angeles Fire Department at 11:05 a.m., said LAFD assistant chief Scott Mottram. The entire building was evacuated.
LAFD spokesman Matt Spence said 15 fire trucks responded to the scene because the fire met the criteria to be a major emergency – it was in a high-rise building on campus that is densely populated.
Additional resources were requested because there were multiple floors and the fire was in and near science labs with elements that could cause incidents, Spence said. A reported 21 fire trucks and 149 firefighters were at the scene.
A BruinAlert message was sent out at 11:51 a.m. that said the fire was extinguished. The fire was contained to one room, Spence said.
The incident was not related to hazardous materials, but it received a hazardous materials response because of the materials and testing that occurs in the building, Spence said.
Mottram said LAFD had shut down the building’s air system to prevent any hazardous fumes.
“We are working closely with LAFD,” said James Gibson, director of the Office of Environmental, Health and Safety. He added that the cause of the fire is under investigation.
Tests in the building for hazardous materials came back with normal limits, Spence said.
The fire occurred in a laboratory directed by Dr. Tomas Ganz, a professor of medicine and pathology. Lab manager Erika Valore said that she was not in the lab at the time but was told that a person working there was boiling water in plastic tubes over a Bunsen burner.
Valore said she was told the person left the room for a couple of minutes. People in the lab smelled smoke and saw flames going up to the ceiling, she said.
This would not normally happen with a water bath, and the incident was unusual, Valore said. She added that in her 25 years at UCLA she has not seen anything of this nature.
Jennifer Holmes, a third-year graduate student in public health, was in class on the fifth floor ““ away from the fire ““ when she heard “code red” over the speaker.
She said her class did not evacuate until people received the BruinAlert.
“We hear code red a lot,” Holmes said.
With reports by Devin Kelly, James Barragan and Sonali Kohli, Bruin senior staff.