Photos by Brandon Arcari, Vermont Business Magazine
by Brandon Arcari, Vermont Business Magazine With the piercing fire alarm as a backdrop, local fire trucks descended on the University of Vermont campus late this morning in response to an incident in one of the STEM labs. Both STEM buildings were evacuated as a precaution. One graduate student was injured but not severely.
According to Enrique Corredera, UVM's executive communications director: The incident occurred on the 3rd floor of the new STEM building sometime this morning, in a chemistry research lab. A team of graduate student researchers were working with chemical compound samples, “as part of a process of preparation for hazardous material disposal practices.”
While moving small vials with chemical compounds from one container to another inside a fume hood, Corredera said, a vial broke. It's unclear at this point how. He said it was likely a phosphorus compound, which produced a flash of fire. The result of that flash fire, he said, was a “relatively minor burn injury to the arm of one of the grad students." The individual, whose name was not released, was taken to the UVM Medical Center with a minor burn to the arm.
There was no visible sign of fire or smoke from outside the buildings.
UVM and City of Burlington emergency vehicles, including fire trucks, as well as other first responders were on the scene this morning and into the afternoon.
As for the emergency response, “Everything else you see is out of a huge abundance of caution,” Corredera said. “No real immediate concern.”
He said the state hazardous materials unit was called in to evaluate the situation.
Classes were canceled in the buildings for the day and the buildings re-opened by early afternoon.
The $104 million Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Complex was completed earlier this year and consists of two new buildings and refurbishing of the Votey Building.
Discovery Hall, where the fire occurred, opened in June of 2017. Innovation Hall, which is connected to Discovery, opened for the fall semester of this year.
