UCL Engineering Lab Sets on Fire

Malet Place during fire evacuation. Image Courtesy: Layla Quaedvlieg

A student laboratory has set on fire, causing disruptions across UCL Main Campus. The fire broke out in the Roberts Building on Malet Place, home to UCL’s Engineering Faculty. The exact cause of the fire remains unclear at this stage. 

Reports of the fire began at 12:10pm on Tuesday 19th November and disruptions continued into the late afternoon. At 2:12pm, London Fire Brigade announced the flames to be ‘under control’. The source of the fire was a mechanical engineering lab in the basement of the eleven-storey building, with the room reported to be partially destroyed. 

One eyewitness account claimed that it was a ‘small fire’, but due to the storage of flammable chemicals within the building, it was at high risk of growing. Fire services therefore responded with large crews from stations in Lambeth and Kentish Town as a precaution. 

London Fire Brigade reported that four fire engines and around 25 firefighters were called to the scene. Red tape barriers sectioned off most of Malet Place, stretching from the entrance gates at Torrington Place to the Fold Pizza shop. Crowds of students, both evacuated and onlooking, gathered behind the tape despite the rain.

If anyone has any more details or photos concerned with these events, please contact uclpinews@gmail.com