Piping insulation catches fire at Wightman Hall last week

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Routine repairs took an unexpected turn when piping insulation caught fire in Wightman Hall July 12.
“It appears that the maintenance people were repairing pipes and it ignited the insulation wrap on the exposed piping,” said Mount Pleasant Fire Department Capt. Andy Theisen at the scene.
At 11:16 a.m., Facilities Management and CMU Police officials called the fire department. The building was evacuated and no injuries were sustained.
The fire was contained in 15 minutes and there was little smoke and fire damage to the building.
“There was more damage caused by breaking off parts of the wall to determine where fire was, as far of any fire damage it was only to the pipe,” said Earl Morrow, Facilities Operations director for Facilities Management.
“There is no damage to the building from the fire itself,” said CMU Police Detective Jeff Pickler.
“Facilities Management removed tile around the doorway.
The fire was detected between the walls. It had come up from the basement,” he said.
Dan Lehr, electrical supervisor for Facilities Management, confirmed the fire’s location.
“It started in a mechanical room in the basement and worked its way up through the wall,” he said. “They were using a torch and cutting out pipes, and the heat transferred and caught the insulation on fire.”
The piping insulation was old and asbestos impregnated, Morrow said.
“We weren’t aware that there was a pipe above when they were doing the work,” he said.
Although the damage was minimal, an actual repair-cost estimate has not been done.
“No estimate has been written up yet and if there was, I haven’t seen it,” Lehr said Monday.
“I thought, ‘We don’t know the extent or how bad, we should evacuate the building,’” Lehr said of when he heard of the fire.
“They got back in the same day,” he said of the evacuees.
Because the fire was determined to be accidental, Pickler said charges against persons involved will not be pressed.
“Accidental fires doesn’t look at that side of it,” he said.