No injuries reported in 'small explosion' at Université de Moncton

Firefighters and police in New Brunswick responded to an explosion at a lab on the campus of the Université de Moncton Saturday morning.

Platoon Chief Keith Guptill of the Moncton Fire Department said the call came in shortly after 11 a.m.

The call from the 911 dispatch centre was originally for a fire inside a science lab, but Guptill said they received an update while in transit that it was a small explosion.

"So of course, that makes us have a heightened sense of responsibility," said Guptill. "Fire is one thing, explosion is another all together, so safety for our crew as well as the individuals that might have been on scene."

Two people were inside the building at the time of the incident, but they exited the building safely.

There were no injuries reported in the blast.

Guptill said a small fire was put out very quickly.

While the incident turned out to be minor, firefighters were not aware of that when they were responding.

"There was a number of members of the RCMP showing up here as well," said Guptill. "When you hear ‘explosion’ in any city, that's a big deal. So they all responded. We all expected to see something very sensational when we arrived here and that wasn't the case and we're happy about that obviously."

As a result of Saturday's incident, a fire prevention team will come to the university to talk to staff to find out more about what their safety protocols.

"Where the place their chemicals, what each of these machines do, so that the fire department members as we respond on scene have more accurate knowledge of what we're dealing with when we get here," he said.

Fire investigators are trying to determine if there was a malfunction with equipment inside the lab or if the fire was electrical in nature.

There was no damage inside the building.

CTV News has reached out to the Université de Moncton for comment.