[Histonet] Fire in the lab

[Joe Nocito]

Once upon a time in a far away land, we used to boil our embedding molds in 
boiling soapy water, over an open Bunsen burner, followed by an alcohol 
rinse then air dry. One time the fire alarm was activated and we had to 
evacuate the hospital. We were out there quit awhile. When we received the 
all clear to go back into the hospital, I was the first one back in the lab 
and the fire department was there, looking into our pot that had boiled out 
and was smoking up the lab. This wasn't the cause of the first alarm, but it 
did set off the second.

Joe
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "CHRISTIE GOWAN" <christiegowan <@t> msn.com>
To: <histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu>
Sent: Friday, February 26, 2010 8:20 AM
Subject: [Histonet] Fire in the lab





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)
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