A major fire causes only a minor blip in operations
by Florence Kizza
Though she did not get to bed until 2 a.m. the night of the fire, Raquel Moncado was on campus the next morning at 6.
“We had taken care of our end,” recalls Moncado, referring to the work she and instructional designer Kimberly Gibson had done the night before. “So we were able to lend a hand in other areas.”
The main building at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas had stood for 113 years without an incident—until a fire broke out on May 6th and burned into the early morning hours of the 7th. Moncado, an instructional technology specialist at OLLU, met her husband at the school and became engaged as they completed their MBAs together there. “This place became our second home,” she says.
Main was home to classrooms, computer labs, faculty and administrative offices, conference rooms and more. The network servers were also there, and the fire knocked out e-mail and phone access. Wimba’s Pronto, an instant messaging system, was of great help.
“We were only closed out one day,” says Moncado. “Classes resumed as soon as a professor was available, because of Lake Online, Blackboard and Wimba. Many professors conducted classes online, from home. We had the tools and we knew how to use them, so we were prepared.”
The last week of classes and finals continued as scheduled, with minimal impact on the students. “We missed only one day of class,” says OLLU president Tessa Martinez Pollack. “Heroic efforts by the city’s fire department, the police department and the incredible spirit of our students, faculty and staff were the essential ingredients.”
Within 48 to 72 hours, the network was back up and running in the library across the street. IT staff members had entered Main during the fire to power down equipment, cover machines and grab servers. “We really didn’t have time to be scared. We had a plan and a purpose, and we went in there to do just that,” says Julian Jimenez, OLLU network engineer.
After the fire was out, they retrieved the rest of the server equipment in Main, and set them up in the library.
“My training, and everyone else’s in IT, includes preparation for the day that something bad happens,” says Moncado. “You never know what it will be.”