When the explosion went off, the first thing Shantel Leithead saw was the walls quivering. The second thing was smoke.
Leithead, a senior, was sitting in a biochemistry class in the Henry Eyring Building (HEB) Thursday morning when a chemical reaction went off in the adjoining preparation room. As alarms sounded overhead, Leithead and her classmates were evacuated from the building.
“It was more of a surprise because we didn’t know what was going on,” she said. “We were all in shock.”
Crews from the Salt Lake City Fire Department arrived on scene at 11 a.m. By then, a white fog had filled the first floor and basement. Responders cleared HEB and the connected Thatcher Building for Biological and Biophysical Chemistry.
The team is currently investigating what caused the explosion. The small reaction was contained in a storage cabinet made of sheetrock, and the small fire was extinguished by an overhead sprinkler. Damage was contained to just the cabinet, which melted from the resulting heat.
The responding HAZMAT team found ammonia, chlorine, sulfur dioxide and traces of hydrochloric acid in the air — all hazardous elements Jasen Asay, spokesperson for SLC Fire, said are “not anything you would want to breathe.”
Potential side effects from exposure to the chemicals can include nausea, vomiting and trouble breathing. Asay said no students or faculty reported injury. Responders later worked to vent the fumes with fans blowing air from the west side of the building out the east side.
“Everything went well,” Asay said. “We were able to safely get all of the bad air out of the building.”
He was unsure how many students were ultimately evacuated, but the building was turned over to the State Fire Marshal’s Office and the U’s Department of Environmental Health and Safety around 2 p.m.
While the explosion was likely unplanned, Asay said the university followed all proper lab procedures.
He said: “It appears that everything was done correctly by the U to be safe.”
@CourtneyLTanner