Two offices containing the Arkansas State University Distance Learning Program burned Aug. 2. The offices, located on the sixth floor of the Nursing and Health Professions Building, are used to connect students from the ASU campus to students on other campuses across the state. No one was in the building at the time of the fire, according to UPD reports. President Dr. Les Wyatt said the cause of the fire was a switch panel in the wall between the two offices that ignited. He said after it ignited, it burned through the wall and caught the adjoining offices ablaze.

The fire was first reported to the University Police Department at 7:22 p.m. by an automated system which immediately notifies UPD when an alarm goes off.

An officer was dispatched to the scene and found the fire. The officer then called the Jonesboro Fire Department which dispatched trucks to fight the fire.

The JFD sent 19 fire personnel and four fire engines to the scene.

It took the firemen about 30 minutes to fully extinguish the blaze. The firemen contributed the ease of putting out the fire to the building’s concrete structure, which kept the fire from spreading.

A Physical Plant crew began cleaning up the scorched offices the day after the fire.

According to Wyatt, the rebuilding of the damaged rooms and replacing the computers that were damaged will cost about $200,000.

“We think our cost will be short of that,” Wyatt said.

The Distance Learning Center videotapes classes on the Jonesboro campus and sends them over a network to other ASU campuses across the state, including Mountain Home and Beebe.

The Distance Learning Center reopened Tuesday with video classes being sent to other campuses when classes started Wednesday.