The ongoing investigation into the Hall-Atwater fire was further complicated on Wednesday, when an electrical reaction following the restoration of additional electricity to the building resulted in a cloud of smoke.

“Contractors inadvertently turned on an incorrect circuit, which caused a cabinet in a lab to accidentally set on fire,” said Middletown Fire Marshall Lewis LaRosa. “We put the fire out and turned the building over to Wesleyan to be able to make the necessary repairs.”

This latest incident occurred as officials and professors work to assess the exact cause of last Sunday nights fire, and to determine the extent of the damage to research labs. According to Associate Vice President for Facilities Joyce Topshe, most electricity, plumbing, heating and ventilation had been restored to Hall-Atwater as of Wednesday, while labs on the east wing are still awaiting repairs. Topshe noted that about one third of the building has been significantly damaged by fire, water and smoke, specifically on the first and second floor.

“The investigation of the fire in Hall-Atwater is ongoing and estimated repairs and costs are not yet completed,” Topshe wrote in an e-mail to the Argus. “The spaces below suffered mostly water damage which has since been partially cleaned and plans are underway to restore it to use. [All] chemical spills were immediately cleaned by an emergency response team.”

According to Associate Professor of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Manju Hingorani, the second floor sustained tremendous water and structural damage, including damage to the corridor, to a lab on the east side of the building, and to a conference room containing the advanced instrumentalism lab used by students for research and teaching. Hingorani noted that the professor in charge of the lab that was most heavily affected had recently retired and cleared out the majority of his belongings just days before the fire.

Hingorani, whose lab is on the second floor of Hall-Atwater, lamented the loss of research labs and facilities, but expressed her relief that the rapid response of students and officials lessened the fire’s potential impact.

“It is important to note that the damage could have been much worse if not for the prompt and effective response of students, Hall-Atwater and Shanklin building staff, Public Safety and the Middletown Fire Department,” Hingorani said. “We owe these and other students who notified authorities our gratitude for their timely actions.”

Officials have established that the fire began after a ventilation fume hood in chemistry lab 124 caught fire due to a chemical reaction. A graduate student had been conducting research in the lab earlier that evening but had already left the building by the time of the fire. According to Middletown Fire Department Deputy Chief Robert Kronenberger, the fire, once ignited, proceeded to move vertically up the plumbing chases of the lab to the ceiling, spreading from there to the second floor.

Graduate student Peter Lambert ’08 originally alerted police about the fire.

“Around 10:30 p.m. I heard a popping sound next door that sounded like someone busting up bubble wrap,” Lambert wrote in an e-mail to The Argus. “At 11:00 p.m. I simultaneously smelled chemical smoke as well as noticed that I was breathing in something that was chemical smoke.”

Lambert immediately checked for others in the building before exiting to safety.

Rebecca Lee ’10 and Ann-Marie Illsley ’10 had been walking from their residence in the Low Rise and High Rise complex to Hall-Atwater. Intending to spend the evening working on their research in the chemistry lab, Lee entered the building just after Lambert exited.

“We walked into the building and we turned a corner,” Lee said. “It looked kind of hazy at the end of the hallway. We went to check it out and saw that it was full of smoke.”

Illsley immediately pulled the fire alarm and Lee called Public Safety, who had yet to be alerted of the fire. Illsley and Lee then headed to Exley to watch it develop in safety.

Public Safety officials were the first to arrive at the scene, followed by about 60 firefighters and personnel. According to Kronenberger, two more alarms were sounded after the first group of firefighters arrived as a procedural signal to call for backup. Kronenberger felt that increased assistance was necessary due to the size of Hall-Atwater and the building’s known large concentration of potentially dangerous chemicals.

Once assured that the building was occupant free, the firefighters were mainly concerned with determining where the fire had begun and the subsequent breadth of its spread. According to Kronenberger, firefighters originally entered the building by breaking a window on the third floor. After battling the fire for about two hours and concluding that it was sufficiently contained, firefighters temporarily halted their work to allow the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection to enter and test for any serious chemical contaminants. The CT DEP determined the air quality of the building to be consistent with safe standards. However, during this lull a second, smaller fire erupted, which was quickly extinguished.

During the fire two Public Safety officers were assessed for exposure to fumes, and a Middletown firefighter was treated for chemical burns to his forearms. Lambert was decontaminated as a precautionary measure after having been exposed to chemical fumes for a sustained period.

Officials did not leave the scene until early in the morning, following a six-hour-long ordeal. Administrators alerted professors whose labs had been affected by the fire prior to notifying the rest of campus.

Contractors are currently assessing the damage to the building, in which the molecular biology, biochemistry, and chemistry departments are based, in order to determine the extent of insurance coverage. Yet many professors remain extremely worried about what effects the fire, flooding and power outage will have on their research and equipment.

According to Hingorani, the fire has compromised the integrity of many ongoing research projects.

“The major impact to Wesleyan science is from damage to infrastructure and

equipment because of the fire and water, and the power outage,” Hingorani wrote in an e-mail to the Argus. “Equipment used for research and teaching, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, such as in the advanced instrumentation lab shared by Chemistry, MB&B and Biology, was damaged.”

Hingorani noted that biological and chemical materials critical to many research projects were lost or damaged when freezers and refrigerators warmed following the initial power outage. In addition, ongoing experiments that involved live cell cultures were destroyed, while other research projects must now be delayed or abandoned.

According to Assistant Professor of Chemistry Erika Taylor, who has eleven undergraduates and graduate students working with her on research in Hall-Atwater, much of the research conducted in the laboratories is dependent upon cell lines, proteins and other materials that are stored in freezers at around negative eighty degrees Celsius. Once the fire had been fully extinguished, many students returned to their labs in order to move any sensitive materials to freezers that still had power.

“My lab had one wall with electricity starting at about ten on Monday morning,” Taylor said. “We were able to move a number of freezers and refrigerators to this area.”

Taylor cannot yet determine the exact impact that the power outage has had on the various research projects being conducted in the building, but she noted that it could have been far worse.

“It’s sort of unclear until power is fully restored and research gets started again,” Taylor said. “We really want to reiterate that we are thankful that the response was quick and effective.”

Hall-Atwater was constructed in 1965 and has since undergone renovations necessary for adapting to new research technologies. Plans to replace Hall-Atwater with a new Molecular and Life Science building were delayed by budget concerns, though the University intends to renovate the building if funding again becomes available.

Topshe attested to the safety of the Hall-Atwater building and its occupants.

“All faculty, staff and students who work with chemicals are trained on proper safety procedures,” Topshe said.

Classes originally held in Hall-Atwater will continue to be rescheduled until reconstruction of the building is complete.