Biomedical lab evacuated. Smoke emergency renews safety debate

[Ian David]

Source: The Boston Globe

By Raja Mishra and John R. Ellement, Globe Staff | March 21, 2007

Firefighters evacuated hundreds of people from a 10-story Boston University biomedical research building yesterday after white smoke wafted through a laboratory that houses vials of highly infectious bacteria, renewing concern about the danger of studying potentially deadly pathogens in a densely populated area.

The smoke set off alarms in the ninth-floor lab of BU's Center for Advanced Biomedical Research in the South End, where scientists keep samples of the Francisella tularensis bacterium, which causes what is commonly known as rabbit fever.

After scientists and others fled, a hazardous materials team in gray biohazard suits and green boots went inside to search for the source of the smoke. The smoke disappeared as soon as firefighters shut off electricity to the building, leading them to tentatively conclude that an electrical problem was the cause. The hazardous materials team found no contamination.

<snip>

Still, the incident fueled the fears of opponents of another BU lab, under construction nearby, where researchers would work with the world's deadliest germs, including Ebola, plague, and anthrax.


Firefighters donned protective suits to investigate smoke inside a Boston University biomedical research building yesterday. (Globe Staff Photo / David L. Ryan)

Read more: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/03/21/biomedical_lab_evacuated/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+City%2FRegion+News

[woodsprite]

1. I hope they did an inventory after things were under control again. n/t

[noonwitch]

2. Didn't Stephen King write a book about this once?

I didn't get my Captain Trips vaccine.