Lab Fire 3324 Hoover Hall Safety is what you continually do… Steve W. Martin Distinguished Professor Department of Materials Science & Engineering swmartin@iastate.edu

3324Hoover Hall – Laboratory Fire The accident Box furnace located in a fume hood Was being used to melt a glass batch ~1,000 oC Unfortunately, it was left unattended Over heated waste chemicals in a plastic pail sitting beside the furnace Chemicals, mostly metal sulfides, reacted exothermically creating the fire Plastic and sulfides were the fuel swmartin@iastate.edu Laboratory Safety Workshop

3324Hoover Hall – Laboratory Fire The accident Additional damage was caused by water in the floor below The fire was put out, but the water sprinkler continued to run. Colleagues were great about the damage, but it was a major inconvenience swmartin@iastate.edu Laboratory Safety Workshop

3324Hoover Hall – Laboratory Fire Lessons learned Never leave furnaces and other dangerous equipment and experiments unattended Anticipate potential risks – we overlooked the risk of reactive chemicals next to a furnace contained in a flammable plastic bucket Continuously evaluate all of your experiments and procedures to mitigate, eliminate, and resolve safety risks Continuously instill a culture of safety that infuses every day activities in the lab Think twice do once…. swmartin@iastate.edu Laboratory Safety Workshop

3324Hoover Hall – Laboratory Fire ISU Response Amazing Fully committed to: Making sure everyone was safe Fire was completely contained and extinguished Worked diligently with Ames Fire Department Provided all levels of support for a quick and efficient recovery ISU building custodial staff were truly superb in providing help with clean up Commercial clean up crews worked tirelessly to insure a full and complete cleanup ISU provided full financial support for the clean up and repair ISU Library restored all of our research notebooks soaked in the fire swmartin@iastate.edu Laboratory Safety Workshop