Texas Tech's campus in Lubbock will be closed Thursday, Friday and next week for spring break after a manhole explosion apparently sparked a series of fires around the campus Wednesday evening, triggering power outages and evacuations, officials confirmed Wednesday night.
Texas Tech President Lawrence Schovanec shared an email with the campus community late Wednesday after the explosion and fire in Tech's tunnel system.
"Dear Texas Tech Family,
Wednesday (March 12) evening, an explosion occurred in a tunnel, causing a fire. The fire spread, leading to outages on the Texas Tech campus. Electricity and gas were shut down across both the Texas Tech and Health Sciences Center campuses in Lubbock to keep the fire from spreading further. The fire was successfully extinguished Wednesday evening.
My kid was texting us most of Wednesday night. He said he saw at least three different colors of fire from the various manhole covers. He stayed in his dorm without power overnight and came home yesterday. I am not sure my wife got a moment of sleep between the initial texts and when he finally arrived here. We considered going to get him Wednesday night (he doesn't have a license (or car) yet), but a 12 hour round trip starting at 9pm sounded like a pretty bad idea and he said they weren't letting anyone on campus.
