NStar Working to Restore Power to Myles

Emergency generators operating, full restoration expected by Thursday evening

Myles Standish Hall, Boston University

Flooding from snow pileup is believed to be the cause of power outages around Boston. Myles Standish Hall lost power early Thursday morning. Photo by Cydney Scott

February 5, 2015
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Updated at 7:30 p.m.: Permanent power has been restored to Myles Standish Hall. The Myles Annex is being powered by NStar generators while NStar works to correct the problem; the building has heat, hot water, and electricity, according to Gary Nicksa. 

BU Operations personnel and NStar have been working to restore power to Myles Standish Hall and Myles Annex, at 610 and 632 Beacon St., after the two lost power in the early morning hours Thursday. The building was one of many in Boston that experienced power outage as a result of flooding caused by pileups of snow. NStar expects power to be restored sometime this evening, but has promised to supply its own generators if that isn’t possible.

“The building is operating on generator power,” according to Gary Nicksa, BU senior vice president for operations, at around 4:30 p.m. “Permanent power has come up and down twice and is expected to be finally restored this evening. Residence Life, Housing, Facilities, Environmental Health and Safety, and BUPD responded immediately and have been working with NSTAR and the students.” The situation is affecting approximately 750 students and Myles’ resident assistants. Myles Standish Annex, which is connected to the main hall and houses approximately 90 students, has emergency power, but no heat. “The annex section, which has a separate heat and hot water system, is expected to be back on line by 10 p.m.,” Nicksa says. “Given the cold weather, we’re offering to house students living in the annex in a hotel tonight. The main building has heat and hot water, so there is no safety issue.”

Some students reported detecting the odor of gas, but there “were no gas issues whatsoever,” says Chester Li, Myles hall director. The odor was coming from the backup generators, which run on nonhazardous gases tested by BU’s Environmental Health and Safety, Li says.

“The building is safe to be in,” says William Walter, assistant vice president for facility operations. “Housing and residence life staff will work directly with students to make sure their needs are met.”

The early morning outage was complicated further by a 7 a.m. fire in one of the NStar manholes outside Myles, which may have caused the BU generator to go offline, says Nicksa. “There were no injuries, the building fire alarm was pulled, and residents evacuated the building.” The Boston Fire Department responded to the manhole fire, and while they were on the scene, they ordered a brief evacuation of Myles as a preventive safety measure until emergency power was restored. A second manhole fire in the vicinity at 3 p.m. further delayed the restoration of power to the residence hall.

The evacuated Myles students were directed to 100 Bay State Road and Kilachand Hall. Emergency power was activated at Myles Standish at 10:30 a.m., including emergency hall lighting, swipe access, lighting in common areas, and one elevator. Building heat is on and bathrooms (showers and toilets) are working, although just one of the two elevators is working and students are being urged to use it just for emergencies, says Nicksa. Myles RAs, as well as Li, are working with the Myles security assistants to distribute flashlights as students enter the building.

Facilities Management & Planning, Housing, and Residence Life are on site and will address heat and other issues as they arise, Nicksa says.

BU Today will provide updates as they become available.

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NStar Working to Restore Power to Myles

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  • Susan Seligson

    Susan Seligson has written for many publications and websites, including the New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, the Boston Globe, Yankee, Outside, Redbook, the Times of London, Salon.com, Radar.com, and Nerve.com. Profile

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There are 6 comments on NStar Working to Restore Power to Myles

  1. The denial of a gas leak is completely unprofessional. I live on the 9th floor, and while I do agree that the smell was not completely present on the floors below me, I know for a fact I was breathing in gasoline from the power source on top of the building. My window was open a crack and it was coming in full force. I reported it around 6:40am while I was on my way out of the building and around 30 minutes later, the building was evacuated. It started after one of the second explosions. The smell of gasoline is totally different from the methane/sulfur mix I smelled later after I returned to my still pitch black building.

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    1. Once gas leaks were reported, Facilities, Environmental Health and Safety Managers toured the building with Residence Life Staff. There were odors present and the Gas Company arrived to assist with leak detection. Three National Grid employees used their testing equipment throughout the building and found no gas leaks. Gas leaks are serious and are always investigated to protect the community. The rooftop generator burns ultra low sulphur diesel and may have caused some odors.

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      1. I spoke to one of the facilities workers that was actually in the building and he confirmed that the gas was blowing back inside. I know what the first symptoms of Carbon Monoxide poisoning are (I was feeling them around 6) and I know I am not the only one that reported the smell, which I repeat, was NOT just sulfur.
        There is also zero mention of the water coming through the ceiling cracks, black ooze, and brown water dripping through the light fixtures. There has been a trash barrel sitting in the middle of our dark hallway for about a week, and several of my floormates were evacuated during finals due to an issue with asbestos.

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  3. I wouldn’t call sitting in Bay State for 4 hours in my pajamas a “brief evacuation.” A brief evacuation would’ve been an hour at most. Alarm went off at 7:20, and we weren’t allowed back in until 11:30. No notification of when we could return either, good thing BU Twitter was there for me because I guess it’s not cool anymore to email or call residents when they can get back in where they pay to live. This whole situation was handled incredibly poorly.

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  4. I am so terribly disappointed and concerned about the way this event was handled. Power and WiFi were lost in the Annex at approximately 12:30 AM hours before the evacuation. After the evacuation none of the students were apprised of the situation, some in classrooms 1.5 miles away from their dorm, without books, computers, IDs, cash and some inadequately dressed. Due to the early morning power outage some cellphones were not charged. Students did not know if they should return to Myles or not. No one kept them informed. I called the Deans office at 10:15 AM and asked them to text students and give them updates. That never happened. An email from RAs were sent to students at some point explaining that emergency power and heat had been restored and they could return. This was not the case for the Annex. Students were allowed into the annex ALONE with a flashlight. The building had NO emergency power or heat. It was total darkness. This NEVER should have happened. The Boston Fire Department would never have allowed it had they known the Annex was still without emergency power. The administration claims it did not know that the Annex was in total darkness. If the administration had been onsite monitoring the event and in touch with the students they would have known. I knew and made many phone calls. Students in the Annex did not have a place to go to with power, hot water and heat until after 6:00 last night when the first text was FINALLY sent to them. BU has to do better.

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