Leaky library's power cut

Rain water leaking through the Library roof late Wednesday evening caused a localised power cut in the main library and Sherfield buildings, and triggered a general evacuation of College buildings.

All alarms on the College main site sounded at around 10 o’clock on Wednesday causing a general evacuation of the site. Speaking to Felix, Keith Reynolds, Head of Security, ascribed the power failure to "Water leaking through the floors of the library and shorting out the distribution box." Peter Wray, Electrical Supervisor in the Estates Division confirmed that rain water had flooded the mains riser in the library and "blown out" power intake.

Areas affected by the power cut include the north side of the library, the NatWest branch on level two of Sherfield and all corridor lights and fire alarms in the Sherfield building. Mr Wray commented that, electrically speaking, "you couldn’t pick out anything worse to have happened." He also said that there was a "lot of damage" in the building.

Library staff expect that the northern half of the library building will not be fully open until Monday.

full story next week