An acetic acid spill caused the cancellation of classes at Wright State and forced one WSU police officer to be treated at Soin Medical Center Monday morning.
The spill was reported at 9:50 a.m. by a lab technician in the basement of Oelman Hall according to Stephen Farrell, WSU Director of Environmental Health and Safety. The spill prompted officials to evacuate nine buildings and cancel all classes on campus at 1:30 p.m.
Students and faculty in Oelman Hall were evacuated by 10 a.m., according to Farrell. The odor of the acetic acid spread to adjoining buildings that caused classes in eight other buildings to come to a halt around 10:20 a.m.
“The first building was evacuated right away but as we got reports, it just kind of followed after that,” Farrell said. “(The odor) has carried as far as two buildings over pretty much each direction.”
Those who left belongings in the nine affected buildings were allowed to enter at 2 p.m. to gather belongings. Those buildings will otherwise remain closed until Tuesday morning.
Classes were cancelled in the affected buildings as of 11:50 a.m. Less than an hour later, WSU announced the cancellation of all classes after 1:30 p.m. Monday. The cancellations disturbed the first day of B Term for thousands of summer students at the university.
Farrell said the lab technician dropped a 2.5 liter bottle of the contaminant.
“The clean up has been done and all of the waste has been removed,” Farrell said. “We are just waiting for it to dissipate.”
The acetic acid is used for cleaning glassware and for other purposes per Farrell.
“It can be very dangerous in very high concentrations,” Farrell said. “We got everyone out in time and we don’t feel there is a hazard from this particular event.”
One WSU officer was transported for observation according to Wright State spokesperson Seth Bauguess.
“He did not want to be transported,” Bauguess said
All campus services in the nine buildings that were evacuated have come to a close for the day. Campers from the Pre-College Program can be picked up at 3 p.m. All other university services will remain open as scheduled.
