Dabney Hall remains without power and with classes cancelled after power outages shut down several buildings across campus this morning, according to Campus Police Captain Jon Barnwell. Earlier this morning, Williams Hall and addition, Cox Hall, and D.H. Hill Library experienced outages as well, Barnwell said.

He said D.H. Hill experienced power outages around 4:37 a.m., after which Campus Police received reports of similar outages at Cox, Dabney, and Williams Halls. According to Barnwell, the outages in D. H. Hill caused the other shortages because the buildings are all on the same power grid.

“When a particular power grid or loop goes down, a certain section will be without power,” he said.

The Facilities Department responded and police made sure the buildings were empty and secure, but Barnwell said upon restoring power, something malfunctioned that caused electrical equipment to overheat in D.H. Hill’s basement.

“We can’t determine whether there was a fire, [but] electrical equipment had burned out and caused sparking,” he said, which led to smoke that resembled that of a fire. The Raleigh Fire Department responded, and said everything inside was safe, according to Barnwell.

“We are very fortunate that damage was minimal and contained to the basement area,” Barnwell said.

He said power had been restored to all buildings by noon, with the exception of Dabney. Members of the facilities team outside Dabney said it is still without electricity because an old transformer died after the power outage. Power will not return until a new transformer is installed, they said.