Campus news

Power restored across northeastern corner of campus

By Public Affairs

The lights have been turned back on in buildings affected by an explosion in an underground high-voltage vault that caused a power outage across the northeastern part of the UC Berkeley campus Thursday morning.

Buildings went dark around 8:15 a.m., when the explosion took place in the vault on the east side of Evans Hall, according to spokeswoman Christine Shaff. Facilities Services staff brought the affected buildings back up one by one, and all power had been restored by 11:50 a.m., she said.

Among buildings affected by the outage were Evan, McLaughlin, Hesse, Etcheverry, Soda and North Gate, according to staff in the area. Buildings elsewhere on campus experienced a brief dip in power, too.

Redundancy in high-voltage power distribution systems on campus allowed the building-by-building restoration of power, Shaff said.

Cause of the explosion was unknown and will be investigated, she said.