Maintenance hole explosion at Texas Tech University causes fires, outages and cancels classes

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This article was published 13/03/2025 (241 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — The power started to come back on Thursday at the Texas Tech University campus in Lubbock several hours after an explosion inside a maintenance hole set off fires and power outages, leading school officials to issue evacuation orders for several buildings and cancel classes for the rest of the week, university police said.

The explosion happened Wednesday evening at the Engineering Key section of campus, which was evacuated. Students were advised Thursday to avoid the area until further notice.

“I heard an explosion and then saw a smoke ring, almost like a cartoon or something,” doctoral degree student Robert Gauthreaux III told KCBD-TV. “It traveled about 200 feet in the air.”

Gauthreaux said he went inside the architecture building, which lost power. He said he and others tried to help someone who was trapped inside an elevator.

Power was shut down to the entire campus while repairs were underway, said Caitlynn Jeffries, a spokesperson for the university’s police department. She asked that all public and unofficial personnel avoid campus.

“You can go ahead and go home for spring break. We are closing school down for the next couple days,” Jeffries said at a news media briefing.

Firefighters responded to campus about 7 p.m. for a possible gas leak, Lubbock Fire Rescue Capt. Jon Tunnell said at the briefing. They found “multiple manhole covers with active fire and smoke issuing from them,” he said.

No injuries were reported, Tunnell said.

An alert from the university sent to the campus community before the news conference had described the explosion as occurring at a substation.

Videos circulating on social media and TV stations showed a heavy presence of firefighters on campus and fire and smoke coming out of at least one maintenance hole cover.

It was not clear what might have caused the explosion.

Different colors of smoke that were seen coming out of the manhole were likely from copper and other metals burning, deputy chief of Lubbock Fire Rescue Nick Wilson said at a news conference Thursday.

“It’s going to be some time before we have answers,” Wilson said.

A few hundred off-campus rooms were secured for students who could not stay in their dorms, according to Texas Tech president Lawrence Schovanec.

There are more than 40,000 students at Texas Tech, and the school sits on 1,800 acres (728 hectares) in West Texas.