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Smoke from an overheating transformer at Stanford University’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory set off early-warning fire alarms Monday afternoon.
The transformer was part of the laboratory’s particle accelerator building, which is two miles long and runs beneath Interstate 280 between the Sand Hill Road and Alpine Road exits. Stanford operates the lab on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, researching a wide variety of physics using advanced X-ray and other technologies.
There were no injuries, and the potential hazard was contained “within minutes,” according to SLAC lab spokesperson Manuel Gnida. The overheated transformer did not catch fire, he said.
The lab sits between Portola Valley, Menlo Park and Woodside. Gnida said the Menlo Park and Woodside fire departments responded to the alarm and cleared the area within an hour.
The SLAC lab’s operations and surrounding areas were unaffected by the overheated transformer, he said.
The SLAC lab was founded in 1962 with the construction of the linear particle accelerator, which was used to observe and study the smallest materials that make up the universe, subatomic particles. The lab’s research expanded in scope over the years, ranging from astrophysics and cosmology to molecular biology.
