ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, October 2, 1995                   TAG: 9510020087
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LISA K. GARCIA STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

3-YEAR PROJECT UP IN SMOKE

Brian Brazil lost more than 9,000 pounds of fish and three years of work in a fire at the Virginia Tech Aquaculture Center early Sunday. It was the second time he had faced such a setback in his quest for a doctorate.

Brazil, a student in the university's Fisheries and Wildlife College, was in his office Sunday night poring over his data and seeing if anything could be salvaged.

``It's real early to tell what will happen,'' he said.

Brian Murphy, head of the department, said Brazil's research was dealt a blow about a year ago when the tilapia fish Brazil was using turned out to be diseased. They all died.

Now, fish from Africa and the Middle East have succumbed to fire.

The fire was spotted by campus police about 4 a.m. Sunday. No one was injured, and the flames were confined to the production room of the Aquaculture Center.

Unfortunately for Brazil, that was the area where his years of work lived in tanks where ozone was pumped into the water to improve water quality. The experiment was seeking the optimal amount of ozone to use for commercial fish production.

The cause of the fire is being investigated, but Brazil said an electrical short is suspected.

The ozone generators for Brazil's project were kept in a shed attached to the main building. The fire started in the shed, then spread to the main building where more than $50,000 worth of equipment was destroyed as well as portions of one wall and the roof, according to Murphy.

Pure oxygen is used by the generators to create ozone. If a short had occurred, the oxygen would have fueled any resulting fire, Murphy said.

By December, Brazil would have been finished collecting his data. Just two months shy of that goal, he now isn't sure how long it will be until he finishes his research.

``It's a pretty big blow to our section of the department,'' he said.

Murphy said the department will meet with Brazil this week to determine how much of his research was complete and where to go from here.

``There's no doubt it will slow him down,'' Murphy said, ``We'll see what we can do.'' 


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