A series of fires and a manhole explosion led officials to shut down the campus and send students home early for spring break.

"Dear Texas Tech Family, Wednesday (March 12) evening, an explosion occurred in a tunnel, causing a fire. The fire spread, leading to outages on the Texas Tech campus. Electricity and gas were shut down across both the Texas Tech and Health Sciences Center campuses in Lubbock to keep the fire from spreading further.

An explosion on the Texas Tech University campus in Lubbock set off fires and power outages Wednesday, leading school officials to issue evacuation orders for several buildings and cancel classes for the rest of the week.