Six construction workers were injured Thursday morning at the Whitman College construction site when a propane tank exploded. No students or other University community members were hurt and no other buildings on campus were damaged.
One of the workers suffered burns to his face and right hand and is being transported from the Helene Fuld Medical Center in Trenton to the Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia for further treatment, Borough police said in a statement.
Three others were also taken to Fuld, one of whom has already been released after being treated for minor injuries. The two other workers were taken to the University Medical Center at Princeton and have been released.
The fire is believed to have started when construction workers smelled gas and moved the leaking 100-pound propane tank, originally stored in one of the building's structures, too close to an outdoor heating unit, Borough police said. A valve may have broken as the workers moved the tank outside.
"The heating unit ignited all the gas," University spokesperson Eric Quinones said. "It created a flash fire."
The fire had already been extinguished by the time Borough police and Public Safety officers, as well as members of the Princeton first aid and fire departments, reached the scene shortly after 8:30 a.m. Parademics from several nearby townships also responded.
Part of one of the Whitman structures that faces the New South administrative building was "a little charred," Quinones said. "Some of the stones may have to be replaced." There was no other visible damage, he added.
Borough fire investigators were still on the scene as of 3 p.m., joined by officials from Public Safety and the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office. Investigators from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration are scheduled to arrive on campus soon to conduct their own assessment, Quinones said.
"The University is sitting down with the construction management firm to make sure they've addressed all safety issues and if there are any necessary new protocols to prevent something like this happening again," Quinones added.
The heating subcontractor on the project will inspect and recertify all the heating units on the construction site and the safety plan at Whitman will be reviewed, he added.
Construction on Whitman College, the University's sixth residential college, began in December 2003. In April 2004, a parked UPS truck rolled backward into the construction site. No one was injured and there was no significant damage to the site.
Whitman is scheduled to open in the fall of 2007.
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