Six injured in chemistry classroom fire at Woodson High School in Fairfax

[jpak]

Source: Washington Post

Five students and a teacher were injured Friday morning in a chemistry classroom fire at W.T. Woodson High School in Fairfax County, school district officials said.

Fairfax County school and fire officials said the students were injured seriously enough to be taken to the hospital, two of them flown by helicopter to Washington Hospital Center in the District, and those students were in serious condition with serious injuries. Three others were taken to Inova Fairfax Hospital. The classroom teacher suffered minor burns, according to school officials.

Fire officials said a chemistry classroom “activity” was taking place during regular school hours when the fire broke out.

The incident comes after a difficult period at one of Fairfax County’s top-performing high schools: Six Woodson students died from apparent suicides between 2011 and 2014, spurring parents to push for more mental-health resources.

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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/three-injured-after-fire-at-woodson-high-school-in-fairfax/2015/10/30/7f6b6aac-7f10-11e5-afce-2afd1d3eb896_story.html

[Roy Rolling]

1. Quick...

Were there Muslims involved? Is this a terrorist act or innocent white students?

[bpj62]

2. Not Funny

My daughter is a junior at a Fairfax County High School and I had to see,which High School it was before i relaxed. Kids getting hurt at school is not a laughing matter.

[leftyladyfrommo]

3. Have you heard what happened?

I know they always worry about fires and explosions in chemistry classes.

[Sophiegirl]

4. No life-threatening injuries

Two students were airlifted to area hospitals. Three other students and one teacher were injured. No reports on what exactly took place.

[sakabatou]

5. If it was a fire in a lab, it could've been from a hose or leak that students use for bunsen burners

It could've also been from chemicals.

[jmowreader]

10. Read the article, it wasn't that at all

The "chemistry activity" was the old "burning metal salts to see what colors come out" one that everyone loves. Instead of just using a Bunsen burner as the flame source, THIS dumbass poured methanol on a lab table and lit it with a Bunsen burner. When the fuel was almost burned off, he poured more methanol on the fire...which is when the disaster happened.

[sakabatou]

11. Oh.

[Kingofalldems]

6. One student is in critical condition.

Last edited Sat Oct 31, 2015, 07:20 AM - Edit history (1)

Now in surgery.

[Skittles]

7. oh no

wishing them the best

[Massacure]

8. A classmate of mine once set a trash can on fire in chemistry class

We were cleaning up and a classmate of mine threw some hot embers into a trash can. The teacher grabbed a fire extinguisher and put it out and no one was injured in that case. I feel bad for the six students in this case though.

[Lionel Mandrake]

9. Chemistry classes are safer than they used to be, BUT ...

Accidents still happen. I wonder why no details have been reported about this one.

When I was in high school (in the 1950s) we carried out many procedures that are now considered too dangerous. For example, we would heat a test tube with a mixture of potassium chlorate (KClO3) and Manganese dioxide (MnO2) over a Bunsen burner to produce oxygen. Only a dash of the MnO2 was needed as a catalyst. We were doing this one day when one of the test tubes exploded. The teacher told us to leave the room immediately, and three more test tubes exploded before the teacher could get the gas turned off. One student was hospitalized with glass shards in his mouth; he dropped out after that.

An investigation revealed that our supply of MnO2 had been contaminated with charcoal. Charcoal and MnO2 look alike; they are both dark solids. A previous class had done a different experiment using charcoal. What probably happened was that a student in that class had tried to put some charcoal back into the jar (which nobody should ever do). Unfortunately, he put it back into the jar of MnO2 instead. That's why the test tubes exploded in our class.