Mechanical Engineering Building evacuated due to chemical fire

By Staff Reports

Publication Date: 11/04/2009

The Mechanical Engineering building was evacuated for 55 minutes Tuesday after a chemical reaction caused a small fire.

Around 12:30 p.m., the Purdue University Fire Department extinguished a small fire that was limited to a five-gallon container that was partially filled with hydrogen peroxide, water and sulfuric acid.

According to Fire Chief Kevin Ply, lab personnel in Room 61 noticed around 9 a.m. Tuesday morning that the container that later caught on fire was leaking. When the officials from Radiological and Environmental Management were called to evaluate the problem, they shifted the chemicals into a drum and removed a saturated fiberboard shelf that the chemical container was resting on. The fire alarm was activated when the debris in the drum began smoking.

“Contents from the container leaked onto cardboard boxes and a fiberboard shelf, and when a highly oxidizing agent makes contact with an organic material, they begin to react,” Ply said in a press release. “We had more smoke than anything, but we did have a small fire inside the container.”

There were no injuries and damage was limited to the shelf the container was resting on and a section of the floor.