West wing burned out
While students were enjoying the first official weekend of summer over the Memorial Day holiday weekend, disaster was striking our 100-year-old campus.
On Sunday, May 25, at around 3 a.m., a fire broke out at the Memorial Student Union Building (MSUB).
Alarms sounded off and over six different firefighting crews from around the region arrived on scene to see flames coming out of the west wing of the second floor of the MSUB.
The Annaville Fire Department was one of the multiple crews dispatched to the smoke filled MSUB and said, “that all units didn’t clear until 9 a.m. that morning.”
By the time the trucks rolled away, however, investigations were already underway to determine the extent and cause of the damage. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
With fire, smoke and the water from sprinkler systems, the whole MSUB was affected but the most damage was to the west wing of the second floor, which housed the Mesquite Room and Student Government Association office areas.
This event also came at a time when that part of the MSUB was going to be used for the meeting of The Texas A&M University System Board Regents that was scheduled to be held that week and had to be relocated to College Station.
The west wing of the MSUB did take most of the damage although the dining area of the first floor also sustained a degree of damage that caused it to be closed for now with the goal of being opened by fall.
“We are hopeful remediation efforts on the rest of the first floor will be completed by the start of the fall semester,” Director of Marketing & Communications Adriana Garza-Flores said.
The fire causes dining options to be limited on campus, but university officials have been organizing food and coffee trucks to be on campus every day to help students.
As of Monday, June 9, the Javelina Bookstore reopened to full service besides its sale of snacks.
“Honestly, we’re just thankful to be back in the store and for the opportunity to continue to serve our community, your campus community and all the new Javelinas that are here for Hoggie Day orientations,” Campus Store Manager Mary Garza.
Other resources located at the MSUB also had to be moved and could not come back as quickly, for more information on locations check Contributing Writer Matthew Nicholas’s story on relocation.