Fire in Hell(er)

This is DELAYED breaking news, but we will be updating you all as we find out more. Let us know if you have any tips:

This e-mail was sent out on October 18th at 10:38 am by Mark Collins, Senior Vice President, Administration

A small fire broke out around 10 AM this morning in the Heller School Building.
Everyone was evacuated and the fire was quickly extinguished.

This went out at 12:45 pm the same day

I’m please to report that the Heller School buildings reopened at 12:30 p.m. following this morning’s fire. Classes will be held this afternoon as scheduled. Work is underway to repair areas of the buildings that were damaged, and some areas are still not accessible. These are marked by signs and yellow tape. Crews will be cleaning the building this evening, and we expect that most access will be restored tomorrow.
I want to commend everyone at Heller for calmly and quickly evacuating the buildings. The cause of the fire is undetermined, but is under investigation by the Waltham Fire Department.

Anyone see the fire first-hand? Know any further information?

****Newest update from BrandeisNow:

A small fire broke out in a shaft between the old and new wings of the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at about 10 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 18.

An estimated 300 to 400 students, faculty and staff in the building at the time were evacuated within one minute, and there were no injuries. The fire was quickly extinguished by the Waltham Fire Department. The cause is undetermined and is under investigation by the fire department.

The Heller buildings reopened at 12:30 p.m. and afternoon classes are going ahead.

Some areas of the buildings were not immediately accessible. These areas were marked by signs and yellow tape. Java City was closed for the day, the elevator was out of service for the day and there was no direct access from Heller-Brown into the Schneider building. It was necessary to go outside to pass from one building to the other.

Workers will be repairing glass, carpeting and ceiling where the Schneider building meets the Heller-Brown building. Dean Lisa Lynch said the school hoped to restore passable access between the buildings by Tuesday, Oct. 19.

Power was working throughout the buildings; the dean asked that any outages be reported to Linda Purrini ext 6-3930 or purrini@brandeis.edu. If there is a problem after 5 p.m., call 6-5000.

Dean Lynch thanked everyone affected “for the quick and calm way you all exited the building this morning. The Waltham fire chief made a point of complementing us on how rapidly the building was cleared and how people moved well away from the building.”