4 students hurt, 1 seriously, in Denver lab fire

[alp227]

Source: AP

DENVER (AP) — Four students were burned and one suffered serious injuries Monday after a fire erupted in a Denver high school chemistry laboratory while the teacher was conducting a demonstration with methanol, officials said.

Three students were treated and released from hospitals, and the fourth was transferred to another facility because of the extent of the student's injuries, said Lindsay Neil, a spokeswoman for the Science, Math and Arts Academy charter school.

Neil said she did not have details on that student's injuries or condition. Denver Fire Department spokesman Mark Watson said earlier that one youth had serious injuries.

The teacher, whose name was not released, suffered minor injuries to his hands and declined medical treatment, Neil said.

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/4-students-hurt-least-1-seriously-lab-fire

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Denver Post: Four Denver students burned in chemistry lab mishap; fire put out

[tabasco]

1. Heisenberg. n/t

[PasadenaTrudy]

3. He would have

brought in Methylamine

[xocet]

4. You cannot be certain of that. n/t

[NutmegYankee]

5. ...

One has to be a geek to get that.

[salib]

2. No excuses

These things can be dangerous. The instructor controls everything (plans it, collects materials, executes). There are no excuses.

If it is still dangerous (potentially), then do not do the demonstration. Not worth ANY risk.

[Orsino]

13. Kids will fuck up the best-laid plans.

I loved flashy, fiery demonstrations and did my best to keep 'em safely behind a hood and the kids goggled...but goddamn if I'm glad not to have that kind of responsibility anymore. I shudder when I think of what the thermite alone could have done, let alone all the toxic shit in other lab work.

[jimlup]

6. Guess this is why we science teachers

do those boring safety seminars... yikes! Hope everyone is OK!

[exboyfil]

7. There has been a few stories over the years

of severe burnings and death in chemistry labs at the college level. It was an area that OSHA was looking at getting involved in. Open flames and chemicals are naturally dangerous. Everyone probably has accidentally killed some glassware with an exothermic reaction (I did as a kid with my chemistry set and repeated the mistake in my college chemistry class).

I wonder how many injuries occur in a year in shop class. I do know one activity that involves fewer students than chemistry class which everyone takes that has at least a couple of deaths and many injuries a year - football. 12 high school and college football players die on average every year.

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/average-12-school-football-players-die-year-study-article-1.1309671

That does not excuse not following proper procedures though.

[hunter]

10. I support your comparison to sports.

Without the chemists nobody would be watching football on television or drinking inexpensive mass market beer.

Chemists like to play with fire just as football players like to crash into one another.

Sometimes there are accidents. Sometimes they are caused by negligence, but most often it's the very nature of the sport.

Book learning alone is not the way to teach science or sports.

I hope everyone walks away from this accident without any permanent damage.

I've seen some spectacular lab accidents, fortunately the sort that did no permanent damage to anyone.

The funniest accident I saw was in a university hallway past midnight. A door opened and two researchers ran out. The door closed itself behind them and then there was a big "WOOOOOOOOMP" with smoke billowing out from under the door. The researchers grabbed a fire extinguisher and ran back in.

I peered into the smoke filled lab and there were just the two of them, the fire was out, and they were grinning like idiots so I guess no serious damage was done to their experiment, the lab, or themselves. As scientists they were probably surveying the damage in that order.

[exboyfil]

11. I appreciate you chemists and chemical engineers

my own chemistry training ended with Chemistry II (I am a mechanical engineer). I tutored my older daughter a couple of years ago in Chemistry I (the only chemistry she has to take as a mechanical engineer), and I am currently working with my younger daughter on Chemistry I (it will be a bit funner with her since she plans to go all the way up to Biochemistry).

[hunter]

12. In spite of my fascination with fire, I'm more of a biologist.

That training got me work in medical labs, and as a science teacher.

When I was teaching science I did quite a few fire demonstrations. Teenagers love that.

They love to play with fire themselves even more, but safely shepherding kids through labs involving fire was a high anxiety experience.

Most experiments were simple like this, but with Bunsen burners:

( A funny thing happened when I found this video on youtube. I got an advertisement for Tullamore Dew. I could have used some Irish Whiskey by the time school got out, especially on lab days... )

[magical thyme]

8. my microbiology professor was practically tearing his hair out one day

every lab, the afternoon class got to hear about the morning labs mishaps.

One afternoon he railed on about how he'd had to put out 4 fires that morning. One injit stuck a just heated loop straight back into the beaker of methanol.

[Shemp Howard]

9. College safety courses should be required!

I took many chemistry classes in college. And most of them had an associated lab class. Yet I did not take a single class in chemistry lab safety. None was even offered.

Yes, most lab manuals mentioned safety points. And often the lab teaching assistant would go over a few things as well. But I never took a rigorous class focusing on lab safety.

In my professional career, I've had reason to handle some dangerous chemicals. Everything safety-wise I know about them came from my own research. My college classes taught me about chemical bonding, but not about lab dangers.

So when I read about accidents in high school and college chemistry labs, I am saddened but not surprised.