What Does the Texas Tech Explosion Mean for Students?

Students attending Texas Tech University are met with a mixture of joy and fear as, on one hand, they get an extended Spring Break... but on the other, they have to worry about underground explosions on campus.

Texas Tech University Explosion

If you haven't already heard from news stations across the state, a substation located in the underground tunnels beneath the university ignited on the evening of March 12, causing an explosion that immediately gained mass media attention.

Texas Tech continued to provide updates on the situation with their Tech Alerts, stating that the explosion had impacted multiple locations on campus. It's still unclear what the exact cause of the incident is, but it is known that an underground substation near the Engineering Key ignited, sending a swirl of green and red flames from nearby manholes.

Take a look at this KCBD video recorded from someone on campus who was right next to the explosion:

Miraculously, there are no reported injuries, but the campus was evacuated and they sent students home for an early start to Spring Break.

There were also reports of a gas odor in the engineering buildings surrounding the explosion, and widespread power outages were happening across campus.

History Repeats Itself in Lubbock

I remember back in 2020 when students (myself included at the time) were given an extended Spring Break. Of course that was due to precautions taken by officials when this little virus you may have heard of called COVID-19 began shaking the nation.

At the time, I kept thinking, "wow, this is great! Extra long Spring Break!" Naturally, my feelings of joy quickly diminished as we all then had to live through the following year of masks, standing 6-feet-apart, and the beautiful words of a man whose name rhymed with "ouchie."