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

Authorities say an explosion in a manhole at Texas Tech University set off fires and power outages on the campus, leading school officials to issue evacuation orders for several buildings and cancel classes for the rest of the week

LUBBOCK, Texas — An explosion on the Texas Tech University campus in Lubbock set off fires and power outages Wednesday, leading school officials to issue evacuation orders for several buildings and cancel classes for the rest of the week.

An alert sent to the campus community around 8:45 p.m. described the explosion as occurring at a substation but a later update said it was at a manhole. No injuries were reported, Lubbock Fire Rescue Capt. Jon Tunnell said.

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

It wasn’t clear what might have caused the explosion.

Power will be shut down to the entire campus in Lubbock, Texas, while repairs are underway, said Caitlynn Jeffries, a spokesperson for the university’s police department.

“You can go ahead and go home for Spring break. We are closing school down for the next couple days,” Jeffries said.

The school also instructed faculty and staff to work remotely if possible until further notice.

Lubbock Fire Rescue responded to a possible gas leak around 7 p.m. local time and found “multiple manhole covers with smoke and fire issuing from them,” Tunnell said.

“This remains a very active scene as crews continue to assist Texas Tech University in mitigating this emergency,” he said.

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