Web Update: Emergency units respond to attempted steam tunnel descension

Fire and rescue special operations units descended on campus early Friday morning after several students allegedly removed a manhole cover and tried to climb down into a tunnel near Dillon Gymnasium, according to law enforcement and rescue officials.

Three University students and two other individuals were standing around the open manhole — with one person partly down the shaft — when a Public Safety officer spotted the group around 4 a.m., University spokesman Martin Mbugua said in an email.

Mbugua described the manhole as a “maintenance shaft,” but a rescuer who responded to the scene confirmed that the manhole cover — engraved with the word "STEAM" — is connected to a steam tunnel. A document on the University’s Environmental Health and Safety website also confirms the presence of steam tunnels in the area around Dillon.

The Princeton First Aid and Rescue Squad, Princeton Fire Department and the Plainsboro Fire Company responded, in case a rescue was necessary. In the frigid cold, police and rescuers stood poised over the entrance to the tunnel, shining flashlights and trying to determine if anyone else was inside. Staff from University Site Protection searched the tunnel and determined there were no additional people inside.

Borough police reported that a student allegedly removed the manhole cover “to recover a pair of glasses that he thought may have been dropped,” Capt. Nick Sutter said in an email.