[Histonet] Fire in the lab

[CHRISTIE GOWAN]

Dear Histonet Friends,

I just wanted to share an incident we recently had with an old paraffin pot. One of my techs came in on Sunday to embed some tissues, went into the processor room and smelled something burning. He noticed our old paraffin pot had charred looking labels on the outside so he went over, opened the lid and poof!!! the pot went up in flames. The thermostat had gone haywire and heated the paraffin to flash point. Opening the lid gave it the oxygen it needed to ignite. He triggered the alarm, made the appropriate call and then put it out with an extinguisher. Of course it kept re-igniting because he could not get behind it to pull the plug. The fire dept finally was able to get it pulled out and unplugged. Needless to say the tech was shaken and the room was a mess. I applaud his courage and am not sure I would have done the same. There was enough xylene and alcohol on the 4 processors to cause quite an explosion but everything else was in a flammable cabinet. I was wondering if this type of thing had ever happened to anyone else?? Needless to say, we have de-comissioned all old paraffin pots and will order only those with over temp safety features. I guess I just wanted to remind everyone that fires can happen in the lab and do probably more often than we hear about. This was the first time for me and I have been in this business for over 20 years. Take care and be safe.

Christie Gowan HT (ASCP)