{"id":296627,"date":"2026-06-05T01:39:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T01:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/296627\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T01:39:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T01:39:11","slug":"samples-recovered-from-usf-marine-science-lab-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/296627\/","title":{"rendered":"Samples recovered from USF Marine Science Lab fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 More samples than expected have been recovered from the College of Marine Science Lab on the University of South Florida St. Petersburg campus, which was destroyed by a large fire last month<\/a>, according to Dean Tom Frazer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel really good about many of those samples,\u201d Frazer said. \u201cWe can use them for their intended purpose moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frazer said crews were able to recover 37 freezers, 34 of which were still fully operational. Those samples have been secured in three portable trailer freezers on campus.<\/p>\n

Biological Oceanography Professor Steve Murawski said while the samples appear to be in good condition, they need to be tested for viability.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got the samples, but we have no way to analyze them,\u201d Murawski said. \u201cOur biggest need right now are for two instruments\u2026 we need to analyze all these samples for all kinds of contaminants.\u201d<\/p>\n

Master’s student Layne Leggett, 24, was halfway through her study analyzing barnacles from Tampa Bay for contaminants when the fire broke out. Leggett was worried all of her samples went up in flames but has been relieved to learn her samples survived the fire.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we have to figure out if those items were contaminated with the smoke and water,\u201d Leggett said. \u201cThe samples that were in the freezer and also samples that I had in dry storage did come out. And there is hope that those can be analyzed for the study.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many of the samples have been collected from around the world for USF\u2019s globally recognized research. Professor Murawski said his samples from Tampa Bay and the Gulf go back 15 years to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnytime there\u2019s an oil spill in the Gulf, these are the samples we want to analyze,\u201d Murawski said. \u201cThis is our gold. This is our archive\u2026 these tops are sealed really well. We\u2019re hoping that no smoke got into them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"USF<\/p>\n

USF College of Marine Science Biological Oceanography Professor Steve Murawski shows a frozen fish sample from a bin that was recovered and has been secured in a portable trailer freezer on campus. (Spectrum News\/Josh Rojas)<\/p>\n

Murawski said he\u2019s mindful that students have limited time and hopes the school can get a bridge loan or investment to buy the two instruments they need, a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometer, to continue doing research and speed up the recovery process.<\/p>\n

\u201cRebuilding a major lab like this can take years, but these students don\u2019t have years,\u201d Murawski said. \u201cEven though the lab was insured, and the instruments were insured, we all know how long it takes to get an insurance check. And so there\u2019s very much a sense of urgency that if we\u2019re going to be responsive not only to the people that funded our research but also competing for other grants, federal and state and private grants, we need to have the capacity to do this work.\u201d<\/p>\n

USF believes a lightning strike on May 2<\/a> caused the fire but has been waiting for the State Fire Marshall\u2019s Office to make an official determination. The large fire, which took crews 3.5 hours to get under control, impacted more than two dozen labs, which study all disciplines of oceanography: biology, chemistry, geology and physics.<\/p>\n

Dean Frazer said he\u2019s thankful for the community\u2019s support, and he\u2019s also proud of how students and staff have been handling the tragic event.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to say thank you not only to the folks in the college but the people in St. Pete. Everybody has really gone the extra mile to help us out here. It\u2019s really a time of need,\u201d Frazer said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to certainly build back better. We\u2019re going to be stronger, and we\u2019re going to continue to provide the science that really is important to this community.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 More samples than expected have been recovered from the College of Marine Science Lab…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[2968,115,596,202,204,203,199,201,200,135,835],"class_list":["post-296627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-josh-rojas","tag-news","tag-pinellas-county","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296627","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=296627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}