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| Europe | |
| Huge blast rocks French college | |
| 2006-03-24 | |
A huge explosion has ripped through a chemistry institute in Mulhouse, eastern France, seriously injuring at least one woman, firefighters say. A fire was raging after the blast at 1225 (1125 GMT) and thick smoke billowed over the scene, the French news agency AFP reported. It is not yet clear how the explosion happened.
Additional: MULHOUSE, France, March 24 (Reuters) - A huge explosion destroyed a research building at a French university in the eastern city of Mulhouse on Friday, injuring a large number of people, the emergency services said. Rescue workers faced thick smoke when they arrived at the institute of chemistry on the university campus, a Reuters witness said. The reason for the blast, which was heard across much of the city, was not immediately known. "There are a large number of victims," one rescuer told Reuters. French television said at least one person was seriously hurt and witness Cedric Ridepi told the LCI TV station that he had seen "the inside (of the building) devastated. There were several seats of fire. "There were screams from inside. I saw one wounded person," he added. A student in a nearby building, who gave her name only as Aude, said there "was a huge explosion and all the windows were shattered". The UNEF student union said the complex was not occupied by students as part of protests against a youth jobs law that have hit universities around France. | |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #13 Research chemist Derek Long, on his In the Pipeline blog, has been wondering about the cause too; he doesn't know either. However, if you look at his "How Not to Do It" series, you'll see all sorts of bad mistakes one can make in a chemistry lab. The March 8, 2006 entry about an exploding liquid nitrogen tank at Texas A&M was quite striking. And then there are the situations you can get into with improperly stored ethers. Ether and oxygen gives organic peroxides, which blow up real good. Acetone peroxide is favored by terrorists, yes, but most any organic peroxide can wipe out a building. He has one particularly harrowing case. When I was a student at Brooklyn College in the 1970s, they had to evacuate Ingersoll Hall because somene found an old half-empty container of an ether that had not been correctly sealed. Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity. |
| Posted by: Eric Jablow 2006-03-24 22:52 |
| #12 What we're all wondering: ROP work accident? |
| Posted by: DMFD 2006-03-24 20:54 |
| #11 It depends, RC, on how well vented the labs are in the first place. There may be so many residual smells that gas wouldn't be noticed. |
| Posted by: Jackal 2006-03-24 18:11 |
| #10 Benzene Snakes on a Plane! Benzene Snakes on a Plane! |
| Posted by: Churchills Parrot 2006-03-24 15:45 |
| #9 what Laurence of the Rats said, but even if the French police come back and say it's a gas leak should we believe them? the Frogs have a long cooking thingy. /bon appetite |
| Posted by: RD 2006-03-24 10:41 |
| #8 I assume the French also add odorants to piped-in gas, so if it were a gas leak, wouldn't it have been noticeable? PARTICULARLY by a building filled with chemistry students and teachers? I'd guess they'd be as jumpy about gas as my EE profs were about high voltage. Not saying it wasn't, it just seems odd. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2006-03-24 09:53 |
| #7 This is less than 80 miles from a Chemistry department I know where twice in last twenty years the staff have deliberately burned it to the ground in order to get a better building. No-one could prove it was anything other than an accident and they are happy now in new state-of-the-art laboratories. |
| Posted by: Jake-the-peg 2006-03-24 09:50 |
| #6 I owned a Gremlin once, and yes, they can conspire against you. |
| Posted by: wxjames 2006-03-24 09:49 |
| #5 Occam's razor. Modern chemistry buildings are constructed with "blow away" features, like vents under the eaves and things like that, on the assumption that sooner or later there will be an oops. Having worked with "things that make you go 'boom'", I can say that there are a LOT of materials out there can that give you really sweet contained explosions. On top of that you have the benzene ring fairies and gas gremlins conspiring against you. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-03-24 09:35 |
| #4 DarthVader - That is true, but even if the French police come back and say it's a gas leak should we believe them? The claimed the rioting last year was no big deal, and there was that explosion/fire in a factory (?) in Marseille soon after 9/11 that had the earmarks of a bomb, but it got called an accidental fire. |
| Posted by: Laurence of the Rats 2006-03-24 09:33 |
| #3 I wouldn't be surprised if it was terrorism, but things like this have a really annoying tendency to be accidents after everyone freaks out. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2006-03-24 09:25 |
| #2 The UNEF student union said the complex was not occupied by students as part of protests against a youth jobs law that have hit universities around France I know we need to wait.... but... my, my, isn't that a coincidence? |
| Posted by: 2b 2006-03-24 09:11 |
| #1 Jean Luc, about that warp core breach... |
| Posted by: Phort Whoth9906 2006-03-24 08:40 |