The University of California-Berkeley lost power Monday evening after an explosion that injured multiple people, the Daily Californian reports.
An emergency bulletin posted on the UC Berkeley website said the power outage and explosion were due to a power system failure. The university asked all students, faculty and staff to leave the main campus.
Alice Oh, a reporter with the Daily Cal, tweeted out photos from the scene:
Three people had minor injuries from the explosion, the Los Angeles Times reports, and one additional person was sent to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
The explosion occurred around 6:30 p.m., according to the San Jose Mercury News. Firefighters were called to respond to smoke from a malfunctioning generator during the 4 p.m. hour, around the same time the campus lost power. Crews were working Monday night to rescue people reportedly stuck in elevators due to the loss of power.
Around 8:30 p.m., UC Berkeley tweeted that the fire was extinguished and all of those they knew to be stuck in elevators were rescued.
UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof told the Associated Press the explosion could be the result of attempted underground copper wire theft on campus last week.
"We have a strong suspicion that what happened is related to vandalism discovered last week," Mogulof told reporters, according to the LA Times. “The damage they caused may have been far more extensive than we originally thought."
Smells kinda like burnt rubber. Smoke is very visible.
— geena cova (@geenacova) October 1, 2013
Partial power was restored to the campus after 11 p.m., but the university asked people to stay off campus Tuesday.
Power was restored to campus Tuesday morning: