Steam Tunnel Fire

UPDATE #3: Sunday morning update.  All of the power company trucks are gone but data services still has a lot of work to do.  Look down at the bottom of this page for the latest photos.

UPDATE #2: Posted some more photos of what’s going on at the site of the fire.

UPDATE: Check at the bottom of the page for new photos and info.  Looks like this is a pretty huge deal.

This morning a fire started in the steam tunnel that runs along Campus Way on the OSU campus.  I started seeing reports of a good chunk of the engineering buildings being without power at around 7:30am.  By the time I got to work at 8:20, the fire trucks had left and the clean-up crews were active.  This is the OSU Incident Command trailer pulled up near one of the access hatches.

Kidder Hall was taped off due to lack of power.

Lots of Facilities Services folks and some power crews were out.

Hard at work standing around.

For some reason Pacific Power sent a hole digger to the outage.  You’d think a line truck would be more useful since there are no power poles involved…

D&H Flagging had some people out making sure no one fell in the open access hatches.  This is the hatch that was closest to the fire.  The cover is blackened on the inside.

The mess of burned stuff that was pulled out of the hole.  The fire caused most of the OSU web services and databases to be cut due to the fiber being burned through.  Anyone know what that lump of blackened stuff is?  Post something in the comments below.

Not the prettiest and shiniest of access hatches anymore…

A line truck showed up just as I was walking past.  More Pacific Power crews were driving in as I headed off to find power and internet.  The library has power and if you have your own laptop, internet.  Otherwise try Mc Menamins, Dutch Brothers, Interzone, Allan Bros, or one of the other businesses on Monroe that has free wifi.

UPDATE: Update as of 11:45 AM – more to follow as I get the chance to check out the situation

As seen in the Valley Library.  That’s right, classes are canceled.  Everyone go home and have a good Thanksgiving!

This was the list of buildings directly affected.

In spite of Internet-Power-pocalypse, tours were still running.

Back at the scene of the outage, more workers have shown up.  They’ve erected a tent atop the access hatch now I’m told.

It looks like they’re getting ready to ventilate the tunnel so workers can safely go down there.

For an incident command, it sure is small and cramped.  More photos as I have time to go check out the action.  According to a recent email on the Outages listserv, the fiber and copper wires (internet ant telephone) going to a large chunk of campus have all been melted and burned through.  The person sending the email doesn’t expect all services to be restored until at least Monday.

UPDATE # 2: These photos are as of about 2:00pm.

Down by Covell Hall, a generator is setup, feeding power into the steam tunnel.  If you stand right next to the access hatch, you can feel air being sucked into the tunnel.

I think this says it all.  Wonder how long that sign will stay up.

I will take the graphic as this truck just hit a duck and a beaver was driving it (notice the hardhat inside).

Incident Command was moved to a different place.  Also this tent has now sprung up in front of Gleeson.  Inside it there are a bunch of big electric heaters and chairs.  The guys working on restoring power are going inside periodically to warm up from working in the tunnel and on the surface.

They brought that big generator in to provide power for the heaters.

One of the line trucks.

Outside Kelley Engineering Center, a little generator is running to power a small air compressor.

My best guess is that a steam valve is kept open by air pressure.  The air lines underground (or pump or whatever) must have been cut during the fire.  Now this tiny little thing is keeping something supplied with air in the tunnels.

Don’t bother going to KEC looking for internet.

This guy is going to be busy over the next few days.

UPDATE #3: Here are the latest photos as of 8:30am on Sunday morning.  All of the power company vehicles are gone but the tent and incident command trailer are still on site.  No work going on this morning.  An email that came out to one of the email lists on campus indicated that telephone service won’t be restored to many buildings for a month.  Same for full data services to some places.  My lab has power and internet again at least.

It’s a lot quieter now than it was on Wednesday or Thursday.

Looks like the workers had a pizza party on Thanksgiving.

The tent is still setup.  It looks like there are a few tables and some documents inside now.  This must be serving as the main base of operations for the people who are now trying to splice together the copper and fiber infrastructure that was destroyed in the fire.

All of the access hatches are closed up this morning.  With no one around, I suspect they didn’t want people getting curious and climbing down inside.

Just to the left and a little behind the fire plug there is a mass of charred cables.  I couldn’t tell from my vantage point if these were fiber or copper.  The remnants of a nice little fire would make a good wall hanging in Facilities Services.