Explosion in Rich Hall forces extended evacuation

An explosion in the boiler room of Rich Hall early Friday evening resulted in a broken window and an extended evacuation of the residents until state safety inspections are completed.

USU Police Chief Steve Mecham said dispatch received a call about the explosion at 6:01 p.m. The explosion was heard by a firefighter at the fire station located just north of Rich Hall, who briefly examined the scene before calling in the explosion, he said.

“It was the actual burning unit, the heating unit, that’s what we figure the explosion was,” Mecham said.

USU Fire Marshall Steve Bell said when he arrived on the scene there were two or three units already there with hoses extended, but there was no fire and no damage to the building other than one broken window in the boiler room and some damage to the boiler unit, though the extent of the damage is yet unknown.

Bell said while the actual cause of the explosion is unknown, it is believed the boiler that heats the water for the building had a “small gas leak (that) found an ignition source, resulted in the explosion of the building.”

The state inspected all the buildings in the Student Living Center just two weeks ago, said Steve Jenson, USU Housing executive director.

“It’s one of those freak things,” Jenson said. “As far as I know, the state was up here a couple weeks ago and inspected all these buildings, so I’m not sure. This is probably just an unusual incident.”

Madelyn Vaterlaus, freshman resident of Rich Hall majoring in speech pathology, said she was walking toward Rich Hall from the Lundstrom Center and was about 15 feet away when the explosion occurred, spraying glass across the grass in front of her.

“I screamed really loud,” Vaterlaus said. “I was so freaked out. I had no idea what was going on and heard a bunch of hissing coming from the boiler room. It was really scary.”

Vaterlaus said she ran to her room located one floor above the boiler room in the northeast corner of the building and told her roommates to expect a fire alarm, which she said went off two seconds later. She said when she evacuated the building, she could smell gas.

In the building one floor above the boiler room at the time of the explosion, Warren Fairbanks, undeclared sophomore, said, “I just heard a loud noise and glass shattered and the room shook. The whole building shook. I just thought that somebody had a bomb, like one of the apartments above was messing around with something.”

While it was no bomb or the fault of any student, Rich Hall was evacuated and the gas was shut off, eliminating the possible use of gas appliances or heated water, Jenson said. Temporary living arrangements have been made for the residents of Rich Hall to room in Richards Hall and Building B of the new Living and Learning Community, he said.

“We’re grateful we had some options available to us and we’ve made arrangements with Dining Services, providing meals for these students, and parking is taken care of,” Jenson said. “I think we’re in good shape. It should work out pretty smooth.”

Jenson said Building B was going to be used as a showroom this semester, but this weekend it was housing some transfer students so it couldn’t accommodate all the Rich Hall residents. Otherwise they all would have been housed there.

Residents of Rich Hall packed what they needed and were transported to the temporary housing locations, which were furnished complete with linens, Jenson said. Dining for the students will be available at the Marketplace or the Junction while Rich Hall undergoes a state inspection of the boiler, he said.

Fairbanks said the temporary change in residence doesn’t bother him.

“(I) just get free meals all weekend. It’s a pretty sweet deal,” he said. “I went from the cheapest hall to the most expensive ones.”

Vaterlaus said she was less enthusiastic about moving out.

“It’s kind of cool and exciting, but it’s kind of an inconvenience just to be moved out. I can’t really eat anything at the Marketplace because of allergies.”

As far as a timetable as to when students can return to Rich Hall, Jenson said “it really depends on the state.

“They come in and provide an inspection and then we’ll go in and fix whatever needs to be fixed after the inspection. Then it will have to be inspected again,” he said.

Bell said the state boiler inspector was en route a half hour after he left. Mecham said while he doesn’t have an exact estimate of when the students will be able to return, he said the earliest possible time would be Tuesday.

-seth.h@aggiemail.usu.edu