Manhole explosion at Texas Tech University causes fires, outages and class cancellations

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 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 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.