kaboom!
i was sitting at my desk this afternoon when i heard a loud explosion coming from the lab. all of us in the office sort of eased our way into the lab and began cautiously exploring our workspace. i checked my hood first and everything seemed to be in order. as we were looking in cabinets for exploded waste containers, the fire alarm went off. after handling all the chemicals that i do on a regular basis, i know enough to get the hell out as soon as possible. all the fire alarm drills you go through in school, while important, really just set you up to be very relaxed about fire alarms. it's always just a practice drill, right? so when the fire alarm here goes off, my first thought is, "oh, it's just a drill". that thought is very quickly followed by "holy crap, if it isn't, this place would blow up in seconds"...and that is just based on the chemicals i have by my hood alone. i usually give myself time to grab my coat, but then i book it.
this time, it was the lab next door. they mixed some stuff they weren't supposed to mix, it exploded and all the organic solvents in their hood caught on fire. they got everyone out and no one was hurt, and i don't think there was a horrible amount of damage. luckily.
most days i curse the shoddy construction of this building. in the 3 years since it's been built, we've had door handles fall off, leaks everywhere, elevator buttons break, tile come off the floors. but where it counts, those guys did it right. we could have had a mini-chernobyl on our hands otherwise. yikes!