Briefly in the news

-- Deirdre Newman

A sewage spill and a small chemical explosion plagued the UC Irvine

campus Tuesday.

At 8:45 a.m., a sewer backed up in the dining hall in the Middle Earth

residential area. About 4,500 gallons of sewage spilled out in the course

of an hour, said Karen Young, a school spokeswoman.

UCI plumbers and members of the Irvine Regional Water District

responded to the incident. They shut off the flow and pumped out the

blockage to clear the line.

A plugged grease trap may have been the culprit, Young added.

About 11:45 a.m., a small explosion rocked the engineering laboratory

building. There were no injuries or major damage, Young said. The

explosion occurred in a lab where students test combustible materials and

measure temperatures.

The explosion happened after hydrogen was not completely purged from

the previous experiment, causing an accumulation of natural gas, which

blew the duct top off of a vent, Young said.

Three technicians were in the room at the time, but about 20 people

were evacuated from the building, Young said.

The hazardous materials team, the fire marshal and police responded to

the explosion.