ATHENS, Ga. – University of Georgia officials spent much of Wednesday identifying alternate spaces for pharmacy program classes being relocated because of an early morning blaze in the R.C. Wilson Pharmacy Building.
Fire damaged a third-floor laboratory, but smoke spread through the third floor. Water from a broken pipe ran to the second and first floors. There were no injuries reported and Athens-Clarke County fire officials have ruled out arson. They suspect the blaze was accidental.
After a preliminary assessment of the damage, Provost Arnett Mace and Pharmacy Dean Svein Oie canceled classes in the building and announced that employees who work in the facility should not report to work yesterday. However, pharmacy students, faculty and staff are encouraged to visit the pharmacy web site for information on when and where classes will resume and employees, displaced by the fire, are to report. The site may be accessed directly from the UGA home page, www.uga.edu.
The pharmacy building is a 101,605 square-foot structure that was constructed in 1964. It houses the departments of clinical and administrative services and pharmaceutical and biomedical sciences, the office of postgraduate continuing education, animal facilities and the dean’s office.