Early morning fire destroys research lab at UC Santa Cruz 

Fhar Miess / THE ALARM! NEWSPAPER 11jan02

SANTA CRUZ--A fire broke out around 5:30 this morning on the fourth floor of Sinsheimer Labs on the University of California, Santa Cruz campus. The cause of the fire has not yet been determined, although some on the scene this morning conjectured that this may have been an act of sabotage considering the controversial nature of some work which takes place there as well as the hour at which it occurred.

The Sinsheimer building houses UCSCs Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology department. The fourth floor in particular houses the office of UCSCs Center for Molecular Biology of RNA.

Two controversial areas of study take place on the fourth floor: Human Genome Project research and plant genomics. The UCSC Center for Genomic Science was recently awarded a $5.7 million grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute. 

Manuel Ares and Alan Zahler, two of the four scientists listed as Principal Investigators in the Center's work, both had offices on the fourth floor of the Sinsheimer Labs. Jane Silverthorne, Program Director of the National Science Foundation's Plant Genome Research Program, also had an office on the fourth floor. The fire started in laboratories supervised by Manuel Ares and spread to the adjacent lab of Jane Silverthorne.

Despite ballooning numbers of "bio-ethics" boards and the flourishing of academic disciplines charged with analyzing the possible social repercussions of human genetic research, folks concerned about the Project continue to press for caution against the building inertia of scientific progress. Some find the notion of scientists playing God by manipulating human genetic lines to be abhorrent. Others point out the likely risks of engaging in genetic manipulation without a solid foundation of knowledge upon which to base it. They note that any immediate benefits of genetic therapies may be offset by unforeseen problems generated by those therapies--problems which are generally irreversible and easily compounded. Still others are sceptical that any new technology can live up to its purported social benefits in the context of a biomedical establishment driven more by pecuniary profit than by compassion. They worry that what legitimate treatments and therapies do actually come out of human genetic research will be applied most readily to those with the most money and social privilege.

While some welcome the preponderance of bio-ethics boards and committees as a necessary foil to unrestricted scientific progress, others view them primarily as a ruse to legitimate genetic research and development which has no legitimate basis.
This summer, UCSC hosted a Human Genome Symposium touting the achievements of bioinformaticists (scientists studying ways to use computer technology to map and analyze genetic material). A protest against the Human Genome Project took place outside of that event. Present as a panelist at the symposium was Robert Sinsheimer, after whom the Sinsheimer labs were named. In 1985, while Chancellor at UCSC, Sinsheimer convened a workshop on the mapping of the human genome which served as the origin of the proposal which formed the Human Genome Project. Sinsheimer convened this workshop with the help of molecular biologists Robert Ludwig and Harry Noller, both of whom have offices on the fourth floor of the Sinsheimer building. Plant genomics--the study of genetic traits and their expression--has also proved to be a controversial field of study.

Opponents to the genetic engineering of agricultural crops are sceptical of scientists' abilities to anticipate and avoid environmental catastrophes arising from the leaking of engineered genetic information into the gene pool on a scale that would be otherwise impossible. While not engaged directly in production-level genetic manipulation, the Jane Silverthorne lab does conduct research which is vital to the work of scientists who are more closely tied to the biotech industry. Again, anti-genetic engineering activists note that the benefits of agricultural biotechnology accrue mainly to large ag-biotech firms such as Novartis, Monsanto, and Seminis Vegetable Seeds while farmers are trapped in restrictive contracts which oblige them to pay premium prices to poison their land with chemical herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers while consumers are saddled with unsafe food. Agricultural biotechnology has done little to increase food supply while exacerbating already skewed distribution patterns, leaving millions of people hungry, they claim.

If this morning's fire was indeed an act of sabotage, it would not have been the first time. On December 31st, 1999, a fire was set at the offices of Catherine Ives at Michigan State University. On January 20th, 2000, the Environmental Liberation Front took credit for the action, charging the researcher with doing work which "force[s] developing nations in Asia, Latin America and Africa to switch from natural crop plants to genetically engineered sweet potatoes, corn, bananas and pineapples". That same day, a group calling itself the Fragaria Freedom Farmers took credit for an action at Plant Sciences, Inc. in Watsonville which resulted in the destruction of a research plot of genetically engineered strawberries.
However, there have been other fires at Sinsheimer which were not the result of accidents. On October 20th, 1999, an accidental fire broke out on the first floor of Sinsheimer during the afternoon, accompanied by a small explosion which sent one researcher to the hospital.

The cause of this morning's fire is still being investigated and the economic impact of the fire is still to be assessed. After the fire had been contained, hazardous materials teams inspected the interior of the building. A press release issued by the university indicates that "as of early afternoon, [the] focus is on protecting and preserving research materials throughout the building, with professors providing staff with information to prioritize the removal and/or securing of equipment and experimental data and materials."

UCSC personnel report that a total of 60 firefighters and environmental health and safety personnel responded to the fire. The UC Santa Cruz Fire Department received aid from fire departments from the City of Santa Cruz, the City of Scotts Valley, Aptos, and the Central Fire Protection District, all in Santa Cruz County. The California Department of Forestry also responded.

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Fire guts UC Santa Cruz laboratory, destroys gene research AP 12jan02

SANTA CRUZ, CA -- A tenacious fire that gutted the top floor of a university laboratory and destroyed valuable Human Genome Project research Friday morning later reignited for a third time that evening. 

Investigators are unsure what started the fire, which began about 5:30 a.m. on the fourth floor of Sinsheimer Laboratories at the University of California, Santa Cruz and damaged a lab before it was contained about two hours later. 

It flared again about 9:30 a.m., burned through a protective fire wall and destroyed the inside of a second lab, UCSC Fire Chief Charles Hernandez told the Santa Cruz Sentinel. 

"Everything is destroyed," said Manuel Ares, chairman of the Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology department, who has been conducting federally funded experiments at the lab. He estimated about 10 percent of the building's interior was destroyed, and said other labs and offices suffered smoke and water damage. 

External monitoriing equipment confirmed no hazardous fumes escaped the building, according to a statement released by the school. 

Flames as long as 5 feet stretched out of windows, shattering them. The building caught fire again about 9:10 p.m. Friday, emergency dispatchers told the Sentinel. 

Ares said many of the genetic strains in his lab took 14 years to develop and could take that long to replace. His work was related to the Human Genome Project, a national effort to identify the tens of thousands of genes in human DNA. 

Campus spokeswoman Elizabeth Irwin could not estimate damages Friday but said it was sure to be in the millions. Hernandez said the building did not contain a sprinkler system because it was built in 1987, before fire codes mandated one.