Deadly Laboratory Fires and Explosions
Fatal Incidences in University Labs
BOOM! This is not what you want to hear or experience when you are a student or scientist working in a chemical laboratory. University laboratories in particular are safe havens for learning and research. It is never the norm to experience fires or explosions in a laboratory setting. But, what if it all goes wrong and the consequences become deadly?
Fatal fire
The day of December 29, 2008 will forever be etched in the history of the University of California, Los Angeles and in the minds of the family and friends of a young woman called Sheri Sanji. Sheri Sanji was a 23 year old research assistant working in the organic chemistry lab headed by Professor Patrick Harran at the University of California, Los Angeles. On December 29, 2008 everything seemed to be normal and she was performing an experiment as usual in the lab. However what happened next changed everything. Suddenly, the sounds of her screams split the air. Sheri Sanji had caught on fire! Her co-workers in the lab attempted to put out the fire with a lab coat and then douse out the flames with water from a sink. However, by the time the fire department arrived, it was too late. Sheri Sanji ended up with painful second and third degree burns over half of her body and died some days later in the hospital.
