Smoke, no mirrors

Now that the immediate excitement has worn off, and the smoke has cleared (and I can finally log onto blogger) we can tell of the exciting events of Tuesday. Oh my child, you are in for a tale of wonder and delight!

Yesterday started pretty much as standard. Tedious, usual standard, and the day seemed to progress in the same vein. All until around about 11, when labmate in fume cupboard next to me has a little accident with a winchester of ether (NB non-chemists - ether is highly flammable) and sets a flask full of it, the winchester full of it, two labs coats and half the floor on fire. Whoops.

Now, we move into the case that time seems to slow down! All of the following probably took only 45 seconds to a minute to occur, but I've got a lot of detail to put in! With large licking flames, co-worker has quite rightly legged it, leaving something that could very easily turn into one massive fireball without immediate attention. Chemistry labs are full of flammables, so fire can spread very quickly.....as was the case here; a very little bit of flames in a fume hood turned into flames on the floor and a maybe 2 sq. m. area of conflagration! Delightful.

Now, everyone else had frozen, unsurprisingly - shock is a wonderful thing for making you do that - but eventually I thought 'shit, get fire extinguisher', then 'oh fuck, where are the fire extinguishers', remembered and spotted them, grabbed one and started pushing it back. Carbon dioxide is the extinguisher of choice, people, it all evaporates at the end and you dont have muck to clear up!

I managed to put out the flames on the floor and most of the burning winchester, but then it all ran out. Different lab mate by this time has got the other, powder, extinguisher and puts the rest of it out. We then all leg it in the general building evacuation!

Fire brigade arrives, they check everything (it was all out by then, but best to be safe) and then OK it for us to start damage limitation. Now has anyone else noticed that fireman are less good-looking than they used to be? Maybe I'm starting to look at faces and not just heavy fireproof jackets and thick boots. Hmmmmm.

Lab is coated in extinguisher powder, and this stuff being a finely dispersed material (the better to put out fires, my dear), it's everywhere. Yick. And it smells, and is horrible and ugh. Face masks donned, cleaning begins, never mind......all this of course means that I got no work done yesterday at all, but at least I have an excuse this time! Plus I'm now feeling like a little bit of a hero of the day, since I reacted first! Very scary though, not something I'd like to do again, and all due credit to the fire service for being able to do this kind of thing all the time.

Rest of day was very pedestrian by comparison. After mopping up (I spend my life cleaning things, well, except my own home) and sorting things out, it was time to go home! For a well deserved dinner of chinese chicken - my plum sauce has gone off, mind - and a bath to get the residual powder off my head and out of my lungs. Housemate came home very late, so I havent seen her - but she's still in the habit of flipping the door latch! One of use could get locked out again at this rate!

So, the moral of the story is......dont burn things. Cleaning up is not fun. Oh yes, and fire kills. Leave the pyroclastics to volcanoes.

Wednesday, today, seems positively dull by comparison.....though I can still smell and taste extinguisher powder......