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Q: The March 24 fire in a University of Washington zoology lab was quite destructive and made front-page news. Lab staff say the time between when the alarm went off and when the Fire Department began fighting the fire was a full hour. Twenty minutes of that was because no one knew where to find a key to the lab. The other 40 minutes was because no one knew where to find the Material Safety Data Sheets for that lab. What would keep the same disaster from occurring here? While we do have 24-hour security with keys to all labs, how long would it take security to find a key and get to the necessary spot in an after-hours emergency? Also, where is the Material Safety Data Sheet log for each lab kept, and how does the Fire Department get ahold of it in an emergency? Is it organized in a way that would permit the Fire Department to extract the information it requires in a hurry? Dr. Ed Giniger, Basic Sciences Division Q: Although a fire extinguisher would not have helped in the UW fire (because nobody was around at the time the fire began), there are times when it would prevent not only fire and smoke damage, but also the heavy water damage caused by sprinklers. I suggest having fire extinguishers put in all of our labs. Dr. Charles Laird, Molecular Medicine Division
The HMIS gives locations of chemicals by area (not by lab) and quantities by hazard class, such as flammable liquid, highly toxic and reactive. The binder is not required by code. Environmental Health and Safety decided several years ago to start providing this information to firefighters because it would help in a fire or hazardous materials incident. A full HMIS (several volumes for SLU) is required to be on file with the Seattle Fire Department. Our HMISs are on file and current. MSDSs are of little or no value in fighting a lab fire because of the variety of materials in any given lab. It would take hours to determine the potential health risk from all our MSDSs. And unlike the HMIS, an MSDS does not give information about quantities of materials. Instructions for Center faculty and staff to obtain MSDSs are on page 15 of Chapter Three of the Hazard Awareness and Management Manual. Environmental Health and Safety has all the MSDSs available. We still don't have all the facts about the zoology fire from our colleagues at the UW, but we have found out that the lab that burned was not sprinklered. All of our SLU labs have sprinklers and smoke detectors, which would make a substantial difference for us. In addition, each of our labs at First Hill has a fire extinguisher, and our new labs at SLU have extinguishers placed within 50 feet from the most distant point in each lab. Fifty feet is considered to be appropriate for the type of materials present in the lab. Also, all chemical fume hoods at the Center are equipped with built-in, self actuating extinguishers. Just as important as placement of extinguishers is the need for anyone who would use an extinguisher to be trained. Training is simple and easy, and understanding when and how to use an extinguisher is critical to successfully fighting a fire. Environmental Health and Safety offers regular fire extinguisher training. Lab safety coordinators are required to have training, as are fire wardens in all of our buildings. The training is open to everyone, and I recommend that those who work with flammable material take the training. Hopefully, with sprinklers, smoke detectors and our efforts to make hazardous materials information readily available to firefighters, we will not experience the extensive damage seen in the UW zoology fire. Stephen Benedict, director, Environmental Health and Safety Skip Jones, manager, Security | ||||||
