I had the last part of my Chemical Safety training today, which involved a practical session at the fire hall! First we got dressed up in lab coats, goggles, gas masks with cartridges (they’re a lot easier to breathe in than I thought! So much better than those flimsy carpenter ones!), rubber boots, and rubber gloves which were duct taped to out lab coats 8) Then we walked through this “entry area” which was a “quarantined” orange tarp on the ground. I was in a team of three and we went to the spill, one team mate removed the glass bottle which said it was hydrochloric acid, I surrounded the spill with kitty litter, our other team mate checked the spill with pH paper and it was actually basic. I got the SpillX-C, we all agreed that would neutralize it, a partner sprinkled it on, I mixed it up with a spatula to neutralize it, another team mate checked the pH again and we were good! Then we mixed the kitty little with the spill to absorb it all and put it in the garbage. Then we went through “decon” and got in this rubber tube and had our hands and feet scrubbed. We went to the end of the tarp and took our boots off so they stayed on the tarp, and we walked in our socks on the edge of the tarp. A volunteer than removed the tape from our lab coats and we inched the gloves of so we wouldn’t touch them and left them in the “contaminated” area, aka, the tarp. Overall it was pretty cool!

Then came the fun part – fighting fires :D They trained us on the different types of fire extinguishers, then took us out back where they had a drum full of water and they poured gas on top and lit it, and we had to put the fire out with an ABC chemical extinguisher, just like the one I have at home. I got it out! Wooo! We got to feel the powder that came out and it was more fine than flour. It coats the surface and smothers the flames. SOOO COOL!!! :D