UC Davis firefighters responded to an emergency call at the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital at 11:50 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 30, 1997. The caller reported seeing heavy white smoke and smelling odor consistent with an electrical fire. When the firefighters arrived on scene they were alerted that the odor was coming from a walk-in cold room located in a pathology laboratory on the first floor of the two-story building. Since the laboratory contained hazardous chemicals, the UC Davis Fire department upgraded the call to a second alarm. Within minutes of arriving on scene, the emergency responders did not see smoke but found an electrical malfunction of a centrifuge operating within the lab. The second alarm was canceled. The centrifuge, an apparatus consisting of a compartment spun about a central axis to separate materials of different densities, was removed from the lab. No one was injured and the incident concluded at 12:30 p.m. A number of news media responded to the incident, including the Davis Enterprise and KCRA Channel 3, and KXTV Channel 10's helicopter was hovering overhead.