CLAY -- Three students and a teacher were hurt in a science lab fire at Soule Road Middle School around 1:00pm Thursday afternoon.
Liverpool Central School District Superintendent Dr. Richard Johns says all four were taken to University Hospital by ambulance and parents of the injured students were notified. The students were part of an 8th grade class where, Superintendent Johns says, the teacher was doing a demonstration involving methanol gas, and there was an explosive reaction.
Superintendent Dr. Johns says, "The teacher was at a lab table. Methanol was somewhat involved in it, but we're not sure how or why. Apparently the fumes from the methanol spontaneously combusted and there was kind of this explosion, and unfortunately three of the kids and the teacher got burned."
Superintendent Dr. Johns says two of the victims were girls. They suffered burns to their upper bodies when their clothing caught fire and melted. He says the explosion also burned their faces, but he could not say how bad the burns were.
A third student, a boy, was treated for minor burns on his legs and released. The teacher was also treated for minor injuries and released.
Superintendent Dr. Johns says the classroom has some minor damage. Both Soule Road Middle School and Soule Road Elementary School were evacuated immediately after the fire and students were allowed back in the building less than an hour later. Both schools were still able to dismiss at the regular time.
