Firefighters Investigate Sparking Appliance During UW Fire Drill

The Madison Fire Department has been conducting fire drills on the UW-Madison campus all week. While doing one such drill at the Animal Sciences building Wednesday, firefighters on Engine 3 were approached by UW staff who reported that a lab refrigerator was smoking and sparking.
 
As building evacuation continued, someone unplugged the refrigerator, and Engine 3’s crew went inside to investigate.
 
There were no further sparks or smoke since the fridge had been unplugged. They saw charring around the area of a fluorescent light receptacle in the bottom of the refrigerator.
 
Seeing as there appeared to be no further threat now that the appliance had been unplugged, the crew told lab personnel to keep it unplugged and turned the appliance over to UW Maintenance for repairs or replacement.