The eastern portion of campus was without power on Friday morning following a fire that occurred at a substation along Campus Drive East across from the Outdoor Pool Complex.
The UA Alert system sent a message notifying students of the outage at 8:58 a.m. and another one at 10:17 a.m. that the power had been restored. Buildings including Rodgers Library and the Student Recreation Center were without power, and nearby traffic lights were down.
Alex House, associate director of communications for the University, said that the UA facilities team worked to restore power to campus as soon as possible.
Videos and photos from students who witnessed the fire quickly circulated on various social media apps.
Bailey Salter, a senior majoring in kinesiology, said she was walking with her roommate to class after parking her car at around 8:35 a.m. when they saw the fire.
“We had only made it about halfway across the parking lot when we heard a very loud explosion,” she said. “At that moment we looked to our right and saw bright blue flames rolling from the top of the substation.”
Salter said her roommate called 911 to report the fire.
Maddy Bullard, a sophomore majoring in biology, said she watched the fire, which lasted about one minute, from start to finish and noticed blue and green flames. She said when it was over, there was smoke and a burnt smell.
“I was just in shock when I was watching it because I knew it couldn’t be good,” Bullard said.
After the fire had stopped, a buzzing sound could be heard coming from the substation, and a small electric arc was visible on the substation. Police and firefighters arrived on the scene shortly after the fire broke out, though by the time firefighters had arrived, the fire had died out.
At the time of publication, it is unclear how the fire started. Tuscaloosa Fire and Rescue did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Jacob Ritondo contributed to the reporting of this article.
