It wasn’t just basketball that kept University students and faculty from working over the weekend.
About half of campus was without Internet and phone access beginning Friday afternoon after a lighted cigarette butt took out service to buildings on the west side of the Quad.
Jim Mayne, assistant director of Facility Services, said it was the combination of a lit cigarette and dry leaves that caused the technology-halting fire.
Mayne said someone tossed a cigarette into a grate between Middleton Library and Allen Hall. The cigarette caught the dry leaves in the grate on fire.
The fire damaged the fiber-optic cables, which supply Internet and phone service to much of the west side of campus.
Mayne said Facility Services workers repairing the hole in front of Hill Memorial Library saw smoke coming out of a grate and tried to extinguish the fire with a bucket of water.
Soon after the workers noticed the fire, someone from Allen Hall brought out a fire extinguisher and put out the fire.
The Baton Rouge Fire Department arrived and confirmed the fire was completely out.
Mayne said Friday’s fire was the second time in a year that a carelessly discarded cigarette has damaged and shut down Internet service.
Information Technology Services members said Internet and telephone access was restored over the weekend, but it will take time to fully repair and replace the damaged fiber optic cables.
Mayne said the damage could cost as much as $50,000 to repair.
 
Contact Ginger Gibson at [email protected]