University of Central Oklahoma evacuated after discovery of hazardous acid

A science building at the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond was evacuated for about an hour Wednesday after a professor found a hazardous substance in a chemistry lab.

Adrienne Nobles, spokeswoman for the university, said a professor was doing inventory in a lab inside Howell Hall when he discovered picric acid, a crystalline solid that can be detonated by extreme heat or electric charge. Edmond hazmat firefighters and the police bomb squad were called to remove the substance.

Rumors spread through campus that the evacuation might have been caused by a bomb threat, but the school assured students on Twitter that was not the case.  Below are tweets about the incident. (The posts were curated using the tool Storify. If you have trouble viewing this page, click here.)




Photo by Chris Landsberger: Edmond hazmat firefighters and the police bomb squad work to remove the potentially hazardous substance picric acid, a crystalline solid that can be detonated by extreme heat or electric charge, found in the science building chemistry lab on Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2012, in Edmond, Okla.

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