Four-Alarm Fire Rips Through Historic University of Vermont Building
Source Firehouse.com News
A four-alarm fire heavily damaged a building on the University of Vermont’s central campus. The cause of the fire appears to have been caused workers soldering copper.
According to a new article published by the Burlington Free Press, the fire was confined mostly to the top floor of Torrey Hall, a UVM academic building that houses the Pringle Herbarium, the plant biology department of the university.
No one lives in the building and workers were safe after the fire broke out, according to the newsapaper.
Fire Chief Steven Locke told the newspaper there were no injuries and about 60 firefighters responded to fight the blaze.
Locke told the newspaper it was a difficult fire to fight because the fire had traveled inside the upper floors and into hidden spaces in the building listed on the National Register of Historic places.
A botanist with UVM told the newspaper there were 300,000 plant specimens in the building, mostly on the fourth floor where the fire was most extensive.
The collection consisted of dried plants glued on paper and stored in cabinets, some dating back to 1810. The building was also home to the university’s insect and mammal collection.
Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger told the newspaper the building was undergoing exterior historic renovations which is why the copper soldering was happening when the fire broke out.
