Fire in Swansea Uni leaves students disheartened before their return in September

The fire took place on Swansea’s Bay Campus in one of the engineering buildings


Yesterday afternoon (12th August) the news broke of a fire in Swansea University’s £450 million Bay Campus. Pictures and videos of huge clouds of black smoke appeared on social media almost instantly afterwards. It is believed that the fire started in one of the engineering buildings.

The Cardiff Tab reached out to some Swansea students to ask them what their thoughts were on the fire and how they feel it may affect their return to university.

A student studying Mechanical Engineering in Swansea stated: “I was shocked by the seriousness of the fire and as a returning engineering student hope it will not have an impact on my upcoming studies when I return in September.”

A business management student based on Bay Campus, where the fire broke out, told The Cardiff Tab: “I’ve just moved back to Swansea before starting the new school year in September and could see the fire from my bedroom it was terrifying. It’s going to have a massive impact because it’s already been a difficult year cause of COVID.

“Hopefully it won’t affect our studies even more because I’ve been looking forward to resuming lectures.”

Swansea University stated via Twitter (@SwanseaUni) that they will hopefully be able to provide an update on the damage within the next new days. They also confirmed that thankfully no-one was hurt as a result of the blaze and that the fire department were able to extinguish it quickly, resulting in the continual operation of the campus.

A student based on Swansea’s Singleton Campus told The Cardiff Tab: “After a difficult year it’s sad to see that the uni is facing more struggles particularly now it’s close to the start of term. Although it won’t personally affect me because I’m based on Singleton Campus I do have friends who are doing engineering and it’ll definitely be a set back for them. Everyone I’ve spoken to were shocked it was so out of the blue.”

“It’s so sad to see the fires at our university”, another added, “especially after everything that’s happened in 2020. I hope that they are able to establish the cause and ensure that it doesn’t happen again. I was really looking forward to going back to university this semester so I hope it won’t affect our process of returning.”

Despite this setback we are glad that no one was hurt and hope Swansea is able to bounce back from this ready for the new semester in September.

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