Explosion rocks science class - Filed: August 31, 1999

By AMANDA GAUTHIER and KERRY CAVANAUGH

Tuesday was just the second day of class at East Bakersfield High when teacher John McCormick began his science experiment, which had always been exciting but safe. Instead, a 5-gallon glass water cooler bottle shattered, sending shards of glass flying across the room and 22 students to local emergency rooms. No one suffered major injuries in the 8:25 a.m. explosion but it shook up students, parents and school officials on campus. The Bakersfield Police, Kern County Fire and Kern County Sheriff's departments all responded within minutes. Investigators from the Kern High School District, the Sheriff's Department Bomb Squad and District Attorney's Office were initially on scene in case there had been some criminal element to the accident. Officials quickly determined that the explosion was simply an unfortunate accident. Now the standard accident investigation is being handled by the Kern County Fire Department and the Kern High School District. "This was an approved demonstration experiment," East High principal John Gibson said. "What went wrong nobody can tell at this point. "Student Joseph Krauter was sitting at the back of the classroom. The force of the explosion blew his hair back and pushed him up against the back wall. "And people ask me why I don't like chemistry," Krauter said later that morning as he waited for a ride back to school from San Joaquin Community Hospital. Krauter, 16, was retaking the chemistry course. He knew how the experiment was supposed to work. "The bottle was not supposed to burst at all," he said. "It's a school experiment gone bad. Could be a Fox special," said junior Jesse Martinez, 16. Igniting methanol is a common lab demonstration, said Roy LaFever, a professor of chemistry at Cal State Bakersfield. "It's used in a variety of experiments because it burns clean and, under normal circumstances, is quite controllable," LaFever said. Many high schools use methanol in their labs, said Ralph Huey, director of environmental services for the Bakersfield Fire Department. The problem with methanol, a volatile liquid, is that it gives off vapors at a low temperature, around 50 degrees, he said. It has a "wide flammability range" which means that there doesn't have to be a thick concentration of vapors for a fire to ignite. The experiment could have gone wrong because there was too much vapor in the glass bottle, which could cause a more violent reaction than expected, Huey said. The Tuesday morning lesson for 33 students at East High was supposed to be about observation and inference, a demonstration the 10-year veteran teacher had performed for years. A few milliliters of methanol, also known as wood alcohol, sat in the bottom of the glass bottle. McCormick turned the lights off, lit a match and lifted the lid off the bottle. The students heard a crack before a flame shot out of the top and the bottle exploded — shooting bits of glass around the room. Students said McCormick rushed out of the room when he saw blood coming from his face, and the students followed, heading to the nurse's office in the basement. Glass flew in every direction, breaking a plastic ceiling light cover, hitting the back wall cabinets and piercing the vinyl drapes. Blood spots spread across the floor and desks. Junior Neil Kitchen, 16, was sitting in the front of the classroom near the door during the demonstration. After the explosion, he felt a piece of glass hit the side of his face. He touched his face, saw blood and immediately ran to the nurse's office. The accident was just a freak occurrence, Kitchen said from an emergency room bed at Kern Medical Center. He and his mother, Barbara Kitchen , were waiting for him to get the gash in his cheek stitched up. "(McCormick) is a good teacher. This experiment is done every year," Neil Kitchen said. Krauter and Martinez sat with Elizabeth Guzman, also a junior, in the emergency waiting room. Other students had already been released. The three had minor cuts from shattered glass. Martinez's stomach also was bothering him. Humor helped distract from the visions of a classroom strewn with glass and blood, and the knowledge that it could have been much worse. "People may be joking about it to let it all out, but it was really scary in there," Guzman said. "I'm kind of scared to do chemistry now." Mostly they were worried about their teacher, and wondering how the explosion had happened. "He (McCormick) was shook up. That thing blew up right in his face," Krauter added. "I just hope he can still teach." Guzman and Martinez echoed the sentiment. "I hope he doesn't quit or anything." Martinez said. McCormick went home after he was treated and released from Kern Medical Center for minor cuts. He was in shock from the experiment and concerned about his students, Gibson said. "It's kind of a traumatic experience for a teacher to go through," he said. Mary Martinez, 39, expressed concern for McCormick when she came to pick up her son, Erik Martinez, from San Joaquin Hospital. Erik, 16, was given a tetanus shot because of a cut on his arm, and said his ear hurt. While Erik wasn't seriously injured, Mary Martinez was concerned about the safety of the science lab experiments. She said she was upset that McCormick was wearing protective goggles, gloves and earplugs while the students were not. "If he (Erik) had lost his eyesight over this ..." she said, and stopped. "An accident isn't really an accident. It's someone else's mistake."