After a malfunctioning piece of machinery caused a fire in the Gorguze Family Laboratory Friday, University Police evacuated the building shortly after 12 p.m. 

The facility, located on Draper Drive on North Campus, is home to various engineering laboratories and programming centers. 

The building’s fire alarm was set off after a piece of milling machinery caught fire cutting wood around noon, according to Diane Brown, spokesperson for the University’s Division of Public Safety and Security. The Ann Arbor Fire Department arrived shortly thereafter and extinguished the fire, but was still in the process of cleaning smoke from the building as of 1:30 P.M. Around 1:30 p.m, officers reentered the building to make sure the fire was put out. One person at the scene was examined for possible smoke inhalation and released.

Christopher Gordon, Director of the Wilson Student Team Project Center, said a computer controlled machine that is used to cut wood or other soft material was responsible for the fire. 

“A student was working with the power tool in the room and some of the material he was working on caught fire. The fire alarm went off – evacuated the building and the first responders came, the fire trucks came and the firefighters actually put out the fire. Some of the material was still smoldering and they were able to bring it out and get the fire out.”
 
“Right now it’s just getting past that first initial phase, making sure all the students and staff are okay,” Gordon added. “And now we’ll get things cleaned up and try to see what happened so we can prevent it. The project being worked on was a mold for one of the vehicle projects here that they were working on.”
 
“As of 2:09 P.M., the building resumed normal business, according to a University emergency alert. 

Brown said the fire department is still in the process of determining damages to the lab.  

 

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