Cleanup efforts continued Monday inside a Chapman University lab after a small fire broke out there over the weekend, authorities said.
No updates were available Monday as to the cause and origin of the fire, with officials saying it could take a week or two to figure out what happened Sunday morning, Aug. 23.
Orange city firefighters, with help from Anaheim Fire & Rescue and the Orange County Fire Authority responded to the third floor of the campus’ Keck Center for Science and Engineering about 9:15 a.m., officials said.
The blaze originated from a piece of laboratory equipment, Chapman University spokesman Bob Hitchcock said. On Monday, Orange Fire Department Deputy Fire Marshall Rob Prendergast said a refrigerator was involved.
“It really sustained little damage and it was kind of contained to the equipment itself where the issues started,” Prendergast said.
The building’s automated fire suppression systems worked as they were designed, both spokesmen said.
“They’re doing a lot of remediation work, cleaning up water and things like that,” Hitchcock said Monday. “There was never really anything at risk.”
The fire broke out in a research lab used mostly by faculty with student researchers who work for them, Hitchcock said, adding that organic chemists and food scientists primarily work in that area.
A damage estimate was not available Monday.