A small electrical fire Monday afternoon resulted in sporadic power outages across campus.
At about 4:30 p.m., the Nanoscale Research Facility, across the street from the New Engineering Building, experienced a power surge, said UF spokeswoman Janine Sikes.
The facility partially lost power, as did parts of campus including Library West and Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
All power, with the exception of the facility, was back on by about 5:30 p.m.
“The power surge ultimately tripped the circuits at some of these buildings across campus,” Sikes said. “No one was hurt.”
Students in places like Library West didn’t know why they were without power until they received UF Alerts.
When Mark Hegedus, a 19-year-old UF accounting freshman, got to the library, a guard told him he couldn’t go upstairs because of the power loss.
“They didn’t tell me what was happening, so I had to make an excuse to get up there,” he said. “It was really scary.”
Inside the library, emergency lights came on while power was being restored.
Katherine Brisco, a 33-year-old UF health science senior, said she was sad she couldn’t use her Starbucks app to buy coffee during the outage. But she said she enjoyed the change in lighting.
“It was kind of calming,” she said.
[A version of this story ran on page 1 on 3/18/2014 under the headline "Campus fire sparks power outages in dorms, Lib West"]