The very first day I showed up for grad school, the entire hospital was closed off by men in hazmat suits and a bunch of firefighters. I proceeded to the central office of my program, where more men with hazmat suits were wandering around, and a guy was being treated in my program's office for injuries.
It turned out they were doing "spring cleaning" and somebody accidentally jiggled an old bottle of ether in a fume hood, and unfortunately the old ether must have had some free radicals, which led to an explosion. It blew out all the windows in the room (which were 20-30 feet away) and the chemist was only saved because he was wearing safety equipment (he still had permanent scars on his face years later).
It turned out they were doing "spring cleaning" and somebody accidentally jiggled an old bottle of ether in a fume hood, and unfortunately the old ether must have had some free radicals, which led to an explosion. It blew out all the windows in the room (which were 20-30 feet away) and the chemist was only saved because he was wearing safety equipment (he still had permanent scars on his face years later).
That room was later my office! The incident (as well as the investigation) is written up here: https://synapse.ucsf.edu/articles/2019/03/24/date-ucsf-histo...