FAIRBANKS — An equipment failure at the University of Alaska Fairbanks power plant shut off heat and hot water for 90 minutes Thursday morning at the university’s flagship campus.
The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported a boiler tube failed, sending burning coal out of the boiler and filling the plant with steam.
University and Fairbanks area firefighters extinguished the fires.
Workers restarted the plant with a boiler fired by oil.
Two people were evaluated by medical staff but not injured.
University spokeswoman Marmian Grimes said the malfunction at the plant was similar to one in December 1998.
The power plant is more than 50 years old.
Contractors broke ground last summer on a $245 million replacement power plant. A 17-megawatt boiler will burn coal and biomass.
