Texas Tech officials say Wednesday evening’s fire at the construction site of the Texas Tech Sports Complex Center will not push back its anticipated completion date.
Michael Molina, Vice Chancellor of Facilities, Planning, and Construction for the Texas Tech University System, says the “substantial completion date” for the center remains the same, September 01, 2017, and that it could even be open before then so that Coach Kingsbury’s team may be able to begin practicing in the facility early.
At 7 a.m. Thursday morning, Molina shared he and a team composed of other Tech officials, the internal Texas Tech Fire Marshal and the contractor’s team, revisited the site of the fire, and determined that while there are some pieces of metal that will have to be replaced, it is not a big loss in the construction process.
No injuries were reported in the fire, and thanks to a quick response and containment, no other buildings were involved or damaged.
“Had we not had the right fire watch gentleman on site, it could have been a worse situation absolutely,” said Molina on Wednesday evening after the fire. “We reacted quickly. Everybody did a good job doing what they needed to do contain the fire, and flames spread, which there was none outside of the bundle up on top of the roof.”
Molina confirmed that although the fire was small, it was the rubber-based material that caught on fire that created the heavy black smoke that was visible for miles.
