This message arrived on 9/3/98 to the "Lab Safety" bulletin board to which I subscribe. The fire occured at 7:00 pm Sunday August 9. A safety director from another California university sent it to the bb. It's a rather eye-opening tale.
I have edited it very slightly. Everything between the heavy horizontal rules is from the bb message.
I have received (been copied) a good description of a recent lab fire at CSU Los Angeles. This description is not so much about how hot the fire was nor how high the flames went. I think this story is useful mostly from the point of view how much trouble, time, and money spent can result from a fire that directly affected only two rooms. This story also points up my own prejudices against multi-story science buildings, but that's a separate sermon. I think it's important to note:
I hope you find this useful.
Message received 8/11/98 Hey Folks! The SoCal EHS Mutual Aid can stand down, the Phys. Sci. building is secured and stabilized as of this afternoon. Brady extends his apology to all, for not returning calls. BUT he was happy to know the assistance was available if required. As many of you are aware the fire started on the 7th floor in two adjacent organic labs. No one was injured. Fire damage in two rooms, smoke damage on the two floors, and water damage all the way to the basement. 95 firefighters responded and contained the spread quickly. ECI was there on scene Sunday by 10pm to start clean-up, and has been working the last couple of days. Building will probably be turned to campus by county health tomorrow, and asbestos monitoring will commence. They are going to try and open- basement through 6th for the Fall Qtr., but 7th and 8th will remain closed. This is ONLY a synopsis, Brady will provide a more detailed report as soon as the alligators are hog tied. He will get copies of stills and video to share with us, which I think would be a great help to us all. Call if I missed something. If not, once again an impressive display of 'HAZCON 3', Tony X. |
Message received 8/12/98 To my Fellow EHS Directors, I would like to thank Tony for getting this synopsis out to you and I do apologize for not being more responsive to those calling with the offer of assistance. Everything is under control and moving along systematically towards some degree of normalcy. Some details which will add to what Tony has conveyed to you already. The fire occurred at 7:00 PM 8/9/98, a Sunday, and the fire and haz mat personnel from the County were on the scene immediately. The fire was contained to the two laboratories on the West end of the 7th Floor of our Physical Sciences Building. Two adjacent offices received residual fire damage. The rooms above the fire zone on the 8th Floor received extensive heat damage. The rooms directly below the fire zone received extensive water damage. Smoke and soot damage is on the 7th and partially on the 8th Floors. Residual water damage is on the 1st through 6th Floors. The building has been closed down since the fire and will remain so for some time. The University had taken over control from the County Fire and Haz Mat group at approx. 11:00 PM Sunday evening and our contractor ECI who was on scene began immediately to stabilize the remaining chemistry not engulfed by the fire. These labs destroyed were organic research labs. The main problem we faced were the powdered water reactives which continued to remain unstable until early Monday AM. ECI was done with the chemical removal yesterday. Ended up with 30 drums of lab packs, a roll-off of suspect contaminated debris awaiting analytical. Suprisingly there was approx. 50 gallons total of salvageable chemicals removed from the burn zone, of which about 20 consisted of glass gallon bottles of flammable liquids. The fire doors and the concrete floors contained the fire to the two rooms. ECI performed wipe samples for metals, specifically Hg which was present in small quantities. Awaiting those results. Rad assessment being performed on 5th and Basement levels. Asbestos air monitoring will commence today through Friday with TEM analysis being performed in the fire zone and direct reads on-site for the water damaged areas. There is sprayed on fire-proofing above all drop ceiling panels. Structural engineers have toured the fire zone and Facilities will give EHS recommendations what areas they require asbestos abatement to occur in. Otherwise encapsulation of undamaged ACM will occur. Asbestos abatement of the fume hoods, walls, fire doors damaged, and damaged fire-proofing will occur probably starting Monday. All of this will happen primarily on the 6th, 7th and 8th Floors. CSULA's goal is to have the 1st through 6th Floors ready for Fall Quarter, if possible. The 7th and 8th Floors will be isolated and take much longer to bring back on-line. The County Health Dept. should be out today to observe the clean-up progress. Without inferring any cause for the fire, there were research experiments being performed in this lab 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, unattended. I am sure that I'm forgetting something but have to run off to a meeting now. Will continue to keep you all appraised on the status as I am able to. Regards...Kevin |
Message received 9/1/98 Dear Fellow EHS Directors/Professionals, I am having to resort to this approach to get an update out to you since my e-mail will not allow me to write a note any longer than 1 to 2 minutes. Several attempts have left me with incomplete messages, so this attached file should do the job. Most of you by now have heard of the fire, which occurred in our Physical Sciences Building on August 9, 1998 at 7:00 PM. While the cause remains undetermined, there are two (2) leading candidates, which are: the HVAC was not operational creating an environment where chemicals spontaneously ignited; and an unattended organic chemistry research experiment went bad causing a chemical reaction and subsequent fire. I tend to subscribe to the latter explanation, but the Fire Department report has very simply stated that the origin of the fire was a "laboratory", form of heat was "spontaneous ignition, chemical reaction", and ignition factor was "improper storage". The latter statement was hard for me to understand as the fire zone left no signs that hazardous materials were stored improperly due to everything being consumed by the fire. That's probably why there are the experts. On the building status, shortly after the fire Public Safety re-keyed the building and only 5 keys were made. They reside within Public Safety, EHS and one to our clean-up contractor. This has allowed for very secure access allowing the environmental restoration activities to occur without delay. Both Public Safety & EHS granted limited access to faculty and staff personnel to remove essential instructional items, assess damage to equipment, and secure any experiments after performing environmental monitoring for metals (Pb, Cd, Cr, Zn), mercury, asbestos, radiation, organics, and moisture. All measurements were either non-detectable or far below any established regulated levels from an exposure viewpoint. The moisture survey was to ascertain the extent of water intrusion and allow for a plan of attack to prevent mold and mildew growth before it takes hold. Throughout the environmental activities, EHS has been able to stay with only two (2) contractors, Ecology Control Ind. (ECI) performs all chemical stabilization, asbestos, lead, and mold treatment, and EOS Environmental for all air and bulk monitoring activities. The main focus of all our efforts have been to complete the tasks in the most time efficient means possible. Our ultimate goal is to have Floors 6 through to the Sub-Basement occupied by the beginning of the Fall Quarter. The 7th and 8th Floors have much lengthier schedules due to the additional work required on those floors. The scope of work for ECI is as follows: Floors 6 Through Sub-Basement
ECI has two10-hour shifts, 7 days a week operating now. These are 10 person crews. With additional personnel performing the mold treatment and chemical packaging. On the mold treatment, from the 7th Floor down to the Sub-Basement, all floor boards will be removed and 2-inch holes drilled at specified intervals for the application of a biocide (Cidexplus) to be sprayed behind the wall. There will only be one application as we do not want a measurable residual going into the Fall Quarter. It is tight but our goal is to be complete by Sept. 21st. The EHS activities are running ahead of schedule, but the Facilities actions aren't as clear. They say they can support, but the true test will be when we leave a vacant floor and how long until their work begins. At this time, the 6th Floor is done and cleared. The 5th Floor starts abatement tonight (9/2/98) and should be done by Monday, 9/7/98. From there on each floor (4 to the sub-basement) will take 2 to 3 days each from our end. We hope to better that time as each floor is easier going down. As far as the cost is concerned, if you are interested give me a call, as I have a hard time writing those figures down, that's when reality sets in. I have mentioned a lot, and surely have missed some things. If you have any questions call me and I'll be as open as I can be at this time with the information. Take care…Kevin |
...all this from only two rooms burned up. I think I'll re-visit our fire safety policy and Unattended Experiment protocol.