Most students would recall that the space in front of Humanities and BioSci is a burned down and overgrown area that used to be the Zoology department. Wasn’t there an electron microscope, too? Well anyway, I came across these pictures of the fire taken by a visiting scientist at UPLB. He has kindly allowed me post these pictures. Here is his account of what happened then:
“One of the nastiest cases that I had was once when I was working at the University of the Philippines at Los Baños with colleagues in the Zoology Department. I was working in an office when one of the grad students came running in and yelled that the building was on fire! Someone had been working with volitile chemicals under a hood, the power went out, and they left the room. The power came back on, something sparked in the hood, and it started a fire that quickly engulfed the entire building. I and the grad student grabbed all of our stuff and headed outside. Many others frantically threw their papers and data files out the windows trying to save it. Many faculty members and students were gone at the time and lost everything, including years of work!”
– Lepomis
Does anyone remember that fire?
This happened sometime in the late 80s or early 90s. The papers are data sheets thrown out of the windows by the staff to save their data.
After the fire. Years of work gone.
An eyesore for many years, the Zoology/Old Chem building has just been rebuilt.
My Weblog 
November 29, 2006 at 12:00 am |
it’s good that they finally rebuilt the old chem building. i think the fire happened in ’89, a year before i came to uplb. that was th summer, i think, kasi nasunog na yan nung kumuha ako ng upcat.
e ang physci ba, nasisira na rin? would be nice if you could post pictures of physci, biosci, and the surrounding areas. spent 8 years there.
November 30, 2006 at 10:26 am |
yes. summer yun. we were at the physci building during that time. took up math 36 summer course.
December 1, 2006 at 4:08 am |
Yung Physci lecture hall(s) na renovate recently. Mom ko and her sisses sa Sigma Beta ang nag-organize non for their 50th anniv. Very proud ako sa na-accompish nila.
May pictures ka ba nito? Would be nice if you could post them para makita rin ng iba yung mga changes sa campus.
Salamat!
December 1, 2006 at 4:08 am |
ngayon ko lang nakita yung old bldg.. i thought it was the bldg in AnSci… hehehe… I really love your entries.. because I Love LB so much.. ^_^
December 1, 2006 at 4:08 am |
Sad memories. Been in there many times as a kid growing up in LB. My mom worked there. I heard they lost some valuable equipment in that fire. I think we were on vacation out of town at the time. We heard about it on the phone and came back to a burned out shell. I don’t think they had anything like insurance so it was just a total loss.
December 7, 2006 at 2:28 am |
kung tama ang tanda ko, andun ata sa mga nasunog ang isa sa dadalawang scanning electron micrograph sa buong Pilipinas … tsk tsk tsk.
March 29, 2007 at 4:41 am |
I got these pictures while doing Google search for UPLB. It’s taken by an American professor who was here at that time. He gave me permission to post this.
May 15, 2007 at 12:11 pm |
[…] typhoon Milenyo. They helped catapult this blog to the alumni consciousness. Check out also the fire that ate up a the Old Chem building taken by an American visiting scientist. Most of the pictures […]
May 16, 2007 at 12:32 pm |
Ah ok kaya pala tinanong ko mga resident brods ko kung nasunog ang Human eco sabi nila nde daw, kasi akala ko human eco bldg yung nasa pic, duh I forgot twin building pala yun hehehe, I was able to see the new (old) chem building and I think it’s just a waste of money since the design is pareho lang nunbg dati sayang ang space kulang na ng space ang LB eh. take note batch mate alam ko nung time natin they tried to rebuild it pero nagbago ang administration nawala ang budget so i think mga 3 or 4 times ata na nagkaroon ng construction pero di natutuloy.
May 16, 2007 at 3:27 pm |
Yup, ilang beses na ngang ni-rebuild yan. Ewan ko lang kung anong name na ng bagong building at kung sino na ang gagamit.
July 17, 2007 at 4:00 am |
. . . the old zoology building burned down in summer of 1990. i was standing in front of the building when it was burning. i remember after they put out the flames, someone yeld, “PHYSCI NAMAN!” good memories . . .
July 24, 2007 at 10:13 am |
great blog site! during the fire, i was reviewing for a lecture exam sa chem 17 (take 2 ako kc yung take 1 half ng lecture class ni dr. sabularse (smile!) FAILED!.
ns dorm ako nun “student cooperative housing” or coop dorm before, pero “NEW” dorm na ngayun… hu hu hu!!! nag rereview me sa coop hill…when someone shouted “nasusunog na ang physci!, Yehey!!! ” kala namin physci nga, old chem pala.
my friend is one of the heroes that time coz he tried to salvage whatever is in it… he was able to get some PCs, gusto nya pati un electron microscope na worth P20M pala! anyway, wherever he is right now, Arnel Bacolod! galing mo ‘pre!
August 2, 2007 at 7:57 am |
I was a freshman when the fire happened. It was the year 1989. We had a class in Humanities basement that time and we heard people screaming that the Old Chem building was on fire. Syempre, usyoso kami lahat at una-unahan kaming umakyat ng hagdan. It was nasty though, the fire. After the fire, there was even a rumor that a monkey died in the fire.