Texas Tech Releases Fire Update

Around 5:30pm, Wednesday evening, Tech Twitter and social media flew into panic (both serious and comical) about a fire that had broken out at Texas Tech’s new Sports Performance Center, currently under construction. By now, we’ve all seen the pictures of black smoke rising near the south endzone of the football stadium and were concerned about what happened, was anyone hurt and if there would be any setbacks to completion?

Twitter was all fun and games about the incident:

We even had our fun over at VTM:

There was even joking mention of Russian involvement after Texas Tech was brought up during a hearing at the Capitol looking into Russian involvement during the presidential election and in the month that followed during transition of power.

But after the fire was contained and no one was hurt, questions still remained about what happened. Today, Texas Tech released an update on the fire and its cause.

“The initial analysis of the site and incident conducted by Texas Tech University System Facilities Planning and Construction, TTU Fire Marshall’s office and the project contractor on Thursday morning confirmed minimal damage. The fire was caused by a piece of hot welding metal that fell from the upper roof of the structure on to palletized roofing deck materials on the lower roof below.
Safety watchmen immediately reacted by lowering their lift, but within one minute the pallet of material ignited.”

“We are pleased all safety protocols were followed and thankful there were no injuries as a result of the incident,” said Texas Tech University System Vice Chancellor for Facilities Planning and Construction Michael Molina. “We would also like to thank Lubbock Fire and Rescue for their timely and professional response.”

Good news that we can look forward to it’s completion later this year.