Fictional Science Safety Story

Map of room

Story

It was around 12:30pm, we were just ready for a lab to see how long it takes to boil cold water and room temperature water to see which one boils the fastest. We were using 2 250ml beakers 1 full of cold water and the other filled with room temperature water, a Bunsen burner for heating up the water, a tripod stand for putting the beakers above the flame, forceps to hold the beaker, a wire rack so that the glass doesn’t get full exposure to the heat and a sparker to light the Bunsen burner. I started the lab by filling up the beakers with water, then I put the Bunsen burner down next to the gas valve and connected it, I wasn’t really sure how to connect it to the gas valve but I’m pretty sure I got it. After that I placed the tripod over the Bunsen burner with the wire rack on top, then I placed the first beaker which is full of cold water on top of the wire rack.

I commenced with lighting the Bunsen burner with the sparker after turning the gas valve half way as the teacher instructed. I then waited for the water to boil while timing it and then I wrote down the time after it boiled. While I was taking the beaker off the rack I noticed that there was a bottle of acetone with the lid off sitting on the counter near the Bunsen burner and it seems to have the symbols that mean corrosive and flammable, while I took the time to read the symbols on the acetone I loosened up on the boiling water clenched in the forceps and I dropped it on the table which cut and burnt my hand so I immediately put my hand under cold water and then told the teacher, but while I went over to tell the teacher I hadn’t realized that the Bunsen burner got knocked over and it ripped the connecter to the gas valve out and the acetone also fell over which was lit on fire. The whole table was on fire and that wasn’t the worst thing to happen, the gas valve wasn’t turned off so the gas slowly filling up the room ignited and everyone was burnt to a crisp.