lab on fire!

COFM lab level 6, med students having lab. Prof was the main person in charge and this smart aleck burnt a hole in the pastic of the table's second tier. The lab was a microbio one but the MD4 lab was booked already. They were doing some streaking and antibiotic resistant tests.


The smart aleck lit up the bunsen burner, and as directed by the teaching assistants, moved the flame 'as far away from you as possible' i.e. right under the shelf, which houses the table's fluorescent lights.


The plastic caught fire and started to melt, bringing along panic. The class was supposed to be over by then but the mad, erm, med students were slow...no...they were, ... careful, yes, careful. So they took extra time.


The teaching assistants, having never seen a fire in the lab before, also joined in the panicking students who were shouting in chorus "find a fire extinguisher" to the tune of "chariots of fire". They finally found one and one of the students ran with it and seeing the pin was tied with a safety plastic ring, asked around "do I need scissors for this?" Hmmm... why not you pull it and then tell us if you need a pair? Sometimes you really do wonder where these supposedly smart people keep their brains.


Anyway, they put out the flame and made a mess while at it, bringing forward Christmas celebrations by a good 2 months. The whole area around it was in thick white stuff. I got called to the scene to take pictures of the vandal.. I meant accident that happened for the safety officer's report.
What first hand eye witness told me was the plastic was ablaze and seemed to be spreading. Pieces of molten boiling burning plastic fell off the top onto the bench and were smouldering next to the bunsen burner's gas tube. And the burner was still on. They almost thought the burning plastic would burn through the tubing and cause an explosion.
Obviously, New Year's Day Fireworks did not come early this year.