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Explosion In Chemistry Lab Leaves 10 Students Injured

November 4, 2005

The chemistry lab at St. Martin's University was the sight of an explosion on Wednesday that injured 10 people, five of whom required admittance to the hospital.

Investigators have determined that the explosion which occurred around 1:15 p.m. in the Old Main building was an ethanol vapor explosion, according to a spokesman from the Fire Department.

The explosion happened during a demonstration of the different burn rates of gases. 34 students were in the room as they were comparing propanol and ethanol.

The experiment consists of lighting two big glass containers containing the gases so that the students can watch the burn rate.

According to one of the students in the room, the propanol part of the experiment went exactly as planned but the container with the ethanol simply exploded.

Glass from the two containers were shot across the room which was the cause of injury to most of the students.

Five were taken to the hospital to be treated and another five were treated at the scene.

The students say it was an experiment that simply went wrong because of something small and technical. The accident though was considered very serious and classes were cancelled for the rest of the day so that investigators could determine exactly what made the chemistry demonstration go very wrong.

The fire and police departments have teams investigating the explosion. The police are still not sure what could have gone wrong in an otherwise common experiment done frequently in science classes.