{"id":256122,"date":"2026-05-03T02:28:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T02:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/256122\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T02:28:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T02:28:08","slug":"massive-2-alarm-fire-engulfs-science-lab-at-university-of-south-florida-st-petersburg-total-devastation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/256122\/","title":{"rendered":"Massive 2-alarm fire engulfs science lab at University of South Florida St. Petersburg: &#8216;Total devastation&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A massive 2-alarm fire engulfed the science lab at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg Saturday night, risking the loss of decades of research. <\/p>\n<p>The colossal inferno produced pillars of black smoke billowing out of the roof of the Marine Science Lab, which were visible for miles away, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tampabay.com\/news\/education\/2026\/05\/02\/usf-st-petersburg-campus-fire\/?utm_source=threads&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=SocialNewsDesk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Tampa Bay Times reported. <\/a><\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.28643216;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39266438\" width=\"759\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2026-st-petersburg-florida-usa-126883577.jpg\" alt=\"Firefighters on a ladder truck douse a fire engulfing the roof of a building at the University of South Florida campus.\" class=\"wp-image-39266438\"  \/>A massive fire broke out at the University of South Florida at St. Petersburg.  ZUMAPRESS.com<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUrgent Alert. Fire reported in MSL, Marine Science Lab. Evacuate building. Avoid area. Emergency personnel responding,\u201d an alert sent at at 5:57 p.m by the college said. <\/p>\n<p>Over 50 units of first responders arrived at the scene to battle the blaze, and multiple firetrucks were seen at the site.<\/p>\n<p>Firefighters were seen combating the flames as the building\u2019s roof crumpled, with debris peeling off the side.<\/p>\n<p>Interim Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at USF St. Petersburg Frank Biafora told the outlet that an electrical storm could have been the cause of the inferno. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have faculty members who have research labs there. This looks like total devastation, We\u2019ve all been checking in on each other, \u201d Biafora said.  <\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39266439\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/onlookers-watch-firefighters-work-extinguish-126883843.jpg\" alt=\"Fire at University of South Florida at St. Petersburg. \" class=\"wp-image-39266439\"  \/>Black smoke could be seen for miles.  AP<\/p>\n<p>The building was safely evacuated, and no injuries were reported, officials said.<\/p>\n<p>According to Biafora, the fire could have been much worse. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are actually quite lucky that the wind is taking this to the east of us because we have residence halls and a whole lot of students on this campus,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>USF Sailing coach Allison Jolly said that the <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/04\/23\/us-news\/wild-photos-show-firefighters-battling-massive-5-alarm-fire-at-historic-nyc-church\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">building\u2019s age<\/a> could have made it vulnerable to catching fire, the laboratory was built 80 years ago, the Daily Mail reported. <\/p>\n<p>\u201c[The lab] probably lacked some of the modern fire prevention things\u2026 It\u2019s one thing to have equipment ruined, but to have years of research go up in flames is so sad,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A massive 2-alarm fire engulfed the science lab at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg Saturday night,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256123,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[624,28,30,29,2512,4278],"class_list":["post-256122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-fires","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-university-of-florida","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}