An accident at the chiller plant located between McDonough Gymnasium and Yates Field House resulted in the injury of a worker and power outages in multiple buildings on campus at about 11 a.m Thursday.
University spokeswoman Julie Bataille said that a university worker had fallen off a ladder while doing some work at the plant and hit a power switch as he fell, triggering the outage.
According to Georgetown Emergency Response Medical Services, which arrived on the scene at 10:58 a.m., the worker was immediately transported to the Georgetown University Hospital.
“The patient self-extricated from the area where the electrical incident occurred,” GERMS President Colin Brody (COL ’11) said in a statement.
According to Bataille, the worker did not sustain life-threatening injuries.
Pete Piringer, spokesman for D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services, said that crews were called to the scene of a reported “explosion” at about 11 a.m. Piringer said that the emergency crew found no signs of a fire upon arrival, and the worker had already been taken to Georgetown University Hospital’s emergency room.
The power went out in Lauinger Library, White-Gravenor Hall, Copley Hall, Reiss Science Building, New South Hall, Gaston Hall and Healy Hall at around 10:52 a.m. this morning and was restored shortly before 11:40 a.m., according to University Information Services.
“All power has been restored to the affected locations,” Bataille said. “The university’s [emergency-response] team was notified of the situation and appropriate responders handled the incident. All operations have returned to normal.”
The outage affected several classes that were in session. Chris Halwig (COL ’14) said he was in the midst of a probability and statistics midterm exam when the lights went out in his windowless classroom. Halwig said his professor added 15 extra minutes to the allotted time for the exam once emergency lights activated.
“It was pretty difficult to see my calculator,” he said. “I don’t know if [the professor] would have given us 15 extra minutes if the power hadn’t gone out.”
University workers and Department of Public Safely officials standing in front of the chiller plant, which cools water to effectively decrease the temperature in multiple buildings on campus, declined to comment on the situation once power had been restored.
Workers were also in the process of fixing an electronically retractable door to the plant that had been jammed on one side.
Vice President for University Safety Rocco DelMonaco could not be reached for comment.
