Reno Fire Officials Say Oversight by Presenter Led to Flash Fire

A federal agency is calling on museums and schools to change the way they do science demonstrations in light of a fire that injured 13 people, most of them children, earlier this month at a Reno museum.

 

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board issued a statement Monday urging educators to end or limit their use of methanol or other flammable chemicals in demonstrations involving flames.

 

It came as a fire in a Denver high school chemistry lab burned four students Monday.

 

The agency says there are safer ways to create the color-changing phenomenon the Terry Lee Wells Nevada Discovery Museum was trying to show at the time of the Sept. 3 accident.

 

Investigators say a flash fire erupted after a museum employee added methanol to a cotton ball that was likely still smoldering.  (AP)