Oxnard College’s Marine Center and Aquarium is moving on from the fire that caused major damage to the marine biology classroom.
The fire occurred in the Channel Islands Harbor on Tuesday, Feb. 9.
Only one class session was missed as a result of the fire, said Marine Studies advisor, Tom O’Neil. By Thursday a new classroom was set up near the damaged one.
The Marine Center moved to the new locations with the help of maintenance and operation staff from OC, student workers and employees from the center.
“The old location is going to be left up to the owner, they haven’t done anything yet,” said O’Neil. “We know have two functioning good-sized classrooms completely set up. We are in the process of locating a spot adjacent to the new classrooms for the aquarium.”
The Marine Center and Aquarium is an off-campus location that resided in a two-story building underneath a beauty salon. The Marine Center offers classes for Oceanography, Marine Biology, Geography and other environmental areas of study. The center also included an aquarium with octopuses, starfish and many more sea creatures.
On, Feb. 9 around 11:38 the upstairs beauty salon caught on fire and caused structural, water, smoke and fire damages to the entire building. No individual was injured in the Marine Center and “we did not lose one creature, everything lived through it,” said O’Neil.
Most of the sea life was transferred to UC Santa Barbara and Cal Lutheran’s marine labs.
“We still have a few creatures in tanks down their and their doing fine. All the creatures are great, they’re all happy,” said O’Neil.
O’Neil hopes to get an aquarium running by the summer and will bring back the old creatures or bring in new ones.
As of yet, according to O’Neil, there has not been any additional cost to the college or the district.
