Fire In The Vault

Horrendous electrical fire leaves 5 energy workers with critical burns, shuts off downtown streets

A sudden electrical fire in the basement of the Southwestern Bell Building downtown has put five energy workers in the hospital with "significant electrical burn injuries." The Houston Fire Department rushed to the tall building on Capitol and gave that injury report after some confusion reigned over the downtown incident.

Some media outlets reported that a high-rise was burning, but the electrical fire actually broke out on the bottom of the Southwestern Bell Building in the electrical vault and was quickly put out. The fire damage to the building itself is minimal, according to the HFD, but the workers are dealing with very serious injuries. A fire department official tells KHOU that the injured were hit with 480 volts of electricity in the incident.

They were rushed to Memorial Hermann - Texas Medical Center.

The five people burned are all with CenterPoint Energy. It's yet to be confirmed if they were working on the building's electrical system when the fire broke out in the vault. Electrical fires are considered particularly dangerous because there is often no smoke or warning.

Several streets around the building have been closed off, affecting traffic on San Jacinto, Capitol and Texas.

Come back to CultureMap for more updates as further details emerge.

The incident happened at the Southwestern Bell building in the 1100 block of Capitol about 10 a.m.

CenterPoint Energy workers injured electrical fire downtown June 2013

Photo by Ahmad Muhammad Mitchell KHOU Houston Channel 11

The incident happened at the Southwestern Bell building in the 1100 block of Capitol about 10 a.m.

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Thanks, Queen Bey

Pop icon Beyoncé donates $100,000 to University of Houston Law School

Photo by Erza Shaw Getty Images

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Pop megastar Beyoncé Knowles-Carter has donated $100,000 to the University of Houston Law Center Criminal Justice Clinic through her BeyGOOD Foundation. The gift will allow the clinic to hire fill-time faculty to head it, benefiting the students who study there.

“I am delighted that the BeyGOOD Foundation has made this very generous gift to the UH Law Center,” said Leonard Baynes, dean of the UH Law Center. “Not only will this funding help establish a full-time criminal justice clinic that provides pro bono legal services in our community, but it will also supercharge our already excellent criminal law and justice programming.”

The clinic is one of nine at UHLC. It helps students learn to navigate the criminal justice system, especially on behalf of clients that are underserved by skilled attorneys. People of color are affected disproportionately by a lack of good, ethical representation.

Beyoncé, the most decorated artist in Grammy history and easily the biggest musical star native to Houston, has a long history of advocating for criminal justice reform. She was a staunch supporter of the police reform following the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, asking law enforcement to “stop killing us” in a web post. In 2020, she penned an open letter to the Kentucky attorney general asking for justice in the death of Breonna Taylor.

Through her BeyGOOD Foundation, established in 2013, Beyoncé has focused mostly on expanding the prospects of Black-owned business and offering education opportunities to students. Forwarding the cause of legal representation in Texas while also helping out marginalized communities compliments her other philanthropic work.

“At UH Law, we envision a legal profession where ‘everyone has the opportunity to prosper,’ as BeyGOOD envisions, and we will achieve this vision by providing access to strong and effective legal representation in criminal proceedings,” Baynes said. “And together, through this gift, the BeyGOOD Foundation and UHLC will shepherd the next generation of criminal justice attorneys in the city of Houston, the state of Texas and the nation.”