VOLATILE CHEMICAL DESTROYED BY SQUAD.Byline: Patricia Farrell Aidem Staff Writer NEWHALL - Three jars of an extremely volatile chemical, one banned from classrooms years ago, were detonated Tuesday after their discovery in a routine Fire Department inspection of a science lab at The Master's College History The Master's College was founded as Los Angeles Baptist Theological Seminary on May 25, 1927 to meet the need for a fundamental Baptist school on the West Coast. , county fire officials said. The picric acid picric acid (pĭk`rĭk) or 2,4,6-trinitrophenol (trī'nī'trōfē`nōl), C6H2(NO2)3 , dated 1978, had crystallized crys·tal·lize also crys·tal·ize v. crys·tal·lized also crys·tal·ized, crys·tal·liz·ing also crys·tal·iz·ing, crys·tal·liz·es also crys·tal·iz·es v.tr. 1. , making it still more hazardous, said Mike McCormick Mike McCormick can refer to different people:
The Los Angeles County Fire Department (LACoFD), serves unincorporated parts of Los Angeles County, as well as 58 cities and towns that choose to have the county provide fire and EMS services, including the City of La . The chemical was removed by a Sheriff's Department bomb squad, buried in a hole on the grounds of the Placerita Canyon campus and detonated, McCormick said. ``There was a loud explosion, equal to one or two sticks of dynamite,'' he said. Firefighters on an annual inspection Monday evening came across the quart jars - three-quarters, one-half and one-quarter full - in a laboratory among a group of chemicals that hadn't been used for years, McCormick said. They identified the chemical and returned Tuesday to remove it. ``They (college officials) said that as far as they knew, they had never used it or they hadn't used it in a long, long time,'' said Capt. Eduardo Hernandez, with a Fire Department hazardous materials squad based in Valencia. ``That stuff is highly explosive when its crystallizes,'' McCormick added. ``If anyone had grabbed it and flipped the top it would have exploded in their hand.'' Richard Mayhue, executive vice president of the Christian college, said he was grateful the fire inspector found the chemical and the disposal was handled without incident. ``It was a very remote chance something could have happened - it's been sitting there that long and nothing's happened - but we applaud the Fire Department for ensuring the safety of the students and every one on campus,'' Mayhue said. Picric acid is described in science journals as a highly sensitive explosive that can be detonated by heat, flame, shock or friction. It's often used as a booster to detonate det·o·nate intr. & tr.v. det·o·nat·ed, det·o·nat·ing, det·o·nates To explode or cause to explode. [Latin d another, less sensitive explosive, such as TNT TNT: see trinitrotoluene. TNT in full trinitrotoluene Pale yellow, solid organic compound made by adding nitrate (−NO2) groups to toluene. . it also is used as a yellow dye, an antiseptic and a powerful insecticide. Patricia Farrell Aidem, (661) 257-5251 pat.aidem(at)dailynews.com |
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