A small fire started on the roof of Byrnes auditorium this morning. The cause of the fire was due to the construction being done to the building.
According to Justin Oates, Vice President of Business and Finance affairs at Winthrop University, there were not any injuries however students had to be evacuated and no more classes could take place there today.
“There were no injuries, minimal damage, and the small fire was largely contained even before the Rock Hill Fire Department arrived. Smoke, however, entered the HVAC system which serves both Byrnes and the Conservatory. The smoke is currently being filtered out, classes are in the process of being moved today and we are working with the fire department to determine next steps” Oates said in an email to faculty and staff.
The Rock Hill Fire Department came to the scene of the fire and Deputy Chief of Operations, Mark Simmons, said the fire started around a hatch on the roof building where the contractors were working and no fire got inside the building, it was just smoke. This is still harmful to students so they were evacuated and classes were moved. This raised concerns over where classes will be held for the rest of the week as well as concern for the instruments that were left behind during evacuation.
Donald Rogers, Chair of the department of music who was present during the incident, said that the class situation for the rest of the week is uncertain.
“The roof people did something up on the roof of Byrnes and they messed with an air handler which is connected to the air conditioning, so whether there was a fire or an electrical short or something, it created a lot of smoke and the air handlers has ducts that go all over Byrnes auditorium so it distributed it all over Byrnes and some of it leaked back into the conservatory,” Rogers said. “They are telling us that they are unsure about tomorrow,” Rogers continued.
Byrnes auditorium will be officially closed to the public as of September 1 for two years of construction, and will not reopen until the spring of 2020.
This story is still developing. More information to follow.
Contributors: Matthew Thrift, Cheyenne Walsh, Téa Franco and Victoria Howard
