Preventing Fires and Floods

Fire: Apart from the obvious dangers of horrendous injury and even death, fires are enormously destructive. Remember, after a fire, you may have lost all of your work and your equipment will be gone.

The Fire Detection System: All parts of the Department of Chemistry are fitted with fire detectors that are on alert at all times. A red light appears when a detector is activated, the alarms sound and you must leave the building until the alarm is over.

Take great care to avoid causing “false” alarms. However if you think that something you have done has caused the alarm, inform Campus Security at 2365 immediately.

Solvents in Laboratories: You should store only a working minimum of flammable solvents in your laboratory since, in the event of fire, excess amounts of solvent could endanger life and the fabric of the building. In any case, for legal and insurance purposes no more than 50 L of flammable or highly flammable liquids may be stored in any one laboratory or workshop. As far as possible, and certainly overnight, solvents should be stored in the ventilated safety cabinet provided for the purpose.

Leaving a Laboratory or Workshop: When you leave your workplace in the evening or during the day if you are to be away for long, you have the responsibility to check that:

• there are no obvious problems with reactions or equipment left running (these should be properly labelled).
• unnecessary electrical equipment, e.g. ovens, are turned off and no naked flame or flammable gas is left on;
• flammable solvents are properly stored in closed storage cupboards;
• fume-hoods are closed;
• lights are turned off ;
• fire doors and other doors are closed.

Floods: Apart from the damage they can cause to equipment and paperwork and the considerable inconvenience to victims, floods can be dangerous, for example, by bringing down ceiling boards and wetting live electrical equipment. The greatest care must be taken to avoid floods.

Water Cooling Connections. Plastic tubing carrying cooling water to rotary evaporators, diffusion pumps or any other semi-permanent or temporary systems must be fastened on to the apparatus and the water taps with wire, plastic tags or screw clips. The exit tube must pass the water properly down a drain which is able to cope with the flow and be anchored to prevent splashing or ejection if the water pressure rises.