ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.
--
A fire inside a biomedical research lab at University of New Mexico sends students and staff scrambling from an area where samples of a dangerous disease are being studied.
Investigators believe the fire Wednesday morning at the Bio Medical Research Facility on UNM's north campus started from an annual generator test. The test sparked a fire which evacuated 400 to 500 people. Several neighboring buildings were also evacuated.
Officials said the fire was on the third floor and flames were coming out of a window.
"I'm looking past my monitor, I see this flame in the window," said first-year post-doctoral student and researcher Greg Davenport. " I could see it coming up the column, outside the window."
Davenport said the fire spread quickly, but said he was able to get most of the computers out of his lab.
As the flames and smoke grew, the students grabbed what they could and called 911.
"So it was kind of like a panic mode at that point, because there is a lot of equipment and lot of research, so that needed to be saved at the same time," said Radhika Modi, a fourth-year UNM student.
One of the research projects being conducted in the building is a malaria study.
"The biggest concern is that we have samples up there from Kenya that are probably about six years old in a freezer, and that's what we're really worried about, because they're still up there," said Davenport.
The research students said thousands of dollars worth of equipment is probably lost, but they're crossing their fingers that the freezer full of malaria samples is not damaged.
"I think we're very happy and very grateful that we got out alive," said Modi.
Officials said no one was hurt in the fire.
Research students haven't been allowed back to the lab because of possible hot spots in the building.
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