Featured Image Credit: BYU Police/Facebook
Topics: US News
Hannah Smith
22 students have been evacuated from a college dorm after one of their fellow resident's at-home science experiment went very wrong.
Police say a student at Brigham Young University caused a giant fireball in his kitchen while attempting to follow online instructions for how to make rocket fuel using store-bought ingredients, resulting in 'serious property damage'.
The 22-year-old student had a lucky escape after the mixture exploded while on the stovetop, creating a massive fireball that sent flames shooting along the walls and across the ceiling. The 'intense heat' of the fire set off the sprinkler system in the dorm, causing an evacuation of his fellow residents and resulting in the main floor of the building flooding.
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Firefighters from Provo, Utah, where the Brigham Young University campus is located quickly arrived to extinguish the fire, after being called to the blaze on Sunday afternoon, February 20.
While the majority of the dorm's residents weren't in town, having left for the holiday weekend, the damage suffered to the building meant its 22 residents have been temporarily displaced pending investigations.
Police said work was being carried out to assess the extent of the damage caused by the fire and sprinkler system, as well as looking into what personal property of the residents had been affected.
Thankfully, no one was injured in the DIY experiment, but Police Lt. Jeff Long told CNN the student in question could consider himself fortunate to have got away with his actions without more serious consequences.
'It was definitely poor judgment on this person,' he said, adding, 'He didn't think this through.'
In a post on Facebook, BYU campus police shared images of the damage caused by the man dubbed the 'kitchen chemist', and used the incident as a cautionary tale for his fellow students, warning 'please keep your experiments in the lab and supervised by trained professionals'.
Police Lt. Long said at the present time the student had not been charged with any crime in connection with the incident. However, he also confirmed that an investigation into how the student came to make the rocket fuel is ongoing, with a report into the incident set to be sent to prosecutors to make the final determination on whether any charges should be filed.
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