Major fire threatens total loss of USF St. Petersburg lab building

Fire crews spent the night trying to save a laboratory building that has anchored marine science work on the University of South Florida’s St. Petersburg campus for generations. The blaze broke out Saturday night at the Marine Science Laboratory building, sent thick smoke over the bayfront site and forced evacuations across campus as roughly 60 units and about 200 firefighters rushed in to contain the two-alarm fire.

University officials said no one was injured and no hazardous materials were released, sharply limiting the public-safety risk even as the building itself remained in severe jeopardy. USF President Moez Limayem said damage assessments were still underway and that the destruction was extensive, with officials warning the structure could be a total loss.

Limayem also said St. Pete Fire Rescue reported lightning in the area around the time the fire started, though the cause remained under investigation. He said no other buildings were damaged. By Sunday, classes and normal business operations had resumed on the St. Petersburg campus except for the Marine Science Laboratory building and other facilities on Peninsula Drive, including the Knight Oceanographic Research Center and the Plant Operations/Receiving facility.

The immediate priority shifted from firefighting to salvage. Limayem said recovery teams were working with the USF College of Marine Science to identify key research material and equipment for rescue once the building could be cleared. That work matters because the Marine Science Laboratory has been central to the college’s research, teaching and faculty operations, and its loss could interrupt ongoing scientific projects as well as class schedules.

The building’s significance reaches far beyond one campus. USF says the College of Marine Science is among the top 10 marine science programs in the country, and the St. Petersburg campus sits inside a broader regional research network that includes the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Geological Survey St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute and the Florida Institute of Oceanography. Damage there could ripple through collaborations that depend on the campus for labs, offices and field support.

The structure itself carries a deep history. USF historical material says it began in 1940 as a dormitory, mess hall and classroom space for U.S. merchant marines, and that about 25,000 merchant marines trained on the site during World War II. USF St. Petersburg opened its doors on September 5, 1965. University planning documents from 2022 had already described an $80 million center-of-excellence project to remodel the aging complex and add a four-story expansion, a sign that the building was already seen as vital, fragile and overdue for major investment.

USF said its planned Sailebration graduation event in St. Petersburg would proceed as scheduled, even as the university confronts one of the most serious property losses in the campus’s recent history.