Campus Alert Archive
CC

Sulfuric Acid Left Too Long in a Gen-Chem Oven Smokes Out Olin and Barnes

COhazmatemergency notificationmedium confidence

Sulfuric acid left too long in a General Chemistry I oven burned and pushed smoke out of a fume hood and into a classroom at Colorado College's Olin Hall on the morning of April 14, 2023, forcing the evacuation of Olin and the conjoined Barnes Science Center. A custodian was later hospitalized from chemical exposure, and hazmat crews cleared Olin before reentry.

Alerts
1
Response
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Killed
—
Injured
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Institution
Colorado College
Private Liberal Arts · CO
CC Emergency Alert
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

1 message in sequence

Some alert texts below are approximate reconstructions from news coverage, not confirmed verbatim transcripts. Reconstructed texts are shown in italic with a dashed border. Verified verbatim texts have a solid border and are marked accordingly.

INITIAL ALERTmulti-channel
Approximate reconstruction187 chars
Colorado College Emergency Alert: Avoid the Barnes Science Center and Olin Hall due to a chemical incident. The buildings have been evacuated. Stay clear of the area until further notice.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

Reconstructed paraphrase: The Catalyst reported CC sent a mass emergency alert at about 12 PM telling students to keep clear of Barnes and Olin, but did not quote the alert verbatim.
The alert lagged the roughly 10:45 AM MDT evacuation by over an hour, a timing gap the student newspaper flagged.
Both buildings are named because Olin and Barnes are physically conjoined, so a release in one threatened the other.
Context

Background

Colorado College's natural-science classes are housed in Olin Hall and the conjoined Barnes Science Center. At approximately 10:45 AM MDT on April 14, 2023, sulfuric acid that had been left too long in a General Chemistry I oven burned, and smoke escaped the fume hood into the classroom, prompting the evacuation of both buildings, The Catalyst reported. Barnes was cleared around 11:15 AM once fire doors were confirmed to have sealed it off, while hazmat crews worked to clear Olin. The college sent a campus-wide emergency alert around noon. A custodian was hospitalized from the chemical exposure, and CBS Colorado also covered the evacuation.
Analysis

Key Findings

A teaching-lab mishap — sulfuric acid left too long in a drying oven — generated enough smoke to evacuate two conjoined science buildings
Fire doors sealing Barnes from Olin allowed Barnes to be cleared first, around 11:15 AM MDT, demonstrating passive containment working as designed
The campus-wide emergency alert went out around noon MDT, more than an hour after the evacuation began
A custodian was hospitalized from chemical exposure, the only reported injury
Outcome
Barnes Science Center was cleared around 11:15 AM MDT after fire doors were confirmed to have sealed it off; hazmat crews cleared Olin Hall afterward. A custodian was hospitalized from the exposure.
Provenance

Sources

  1. Student Paper
    Chemical Spill Evacuates Barnes and Olin - The Catalyst
    thecatalystnews.com
  2. News
    Custodian remains hospitalized from chemical exposure at CC - Colorado Springs Gazette
    gazette.com
  3. News
    Chemical Exposure Evacuates Colorado College Hall - CBS Colorado
    cbsnews.com
Tags
sulfuric-acidfume-hoodhazmatlab-safetycoloradoliberal-artsemergency-notification
Added May 2026Updated May 2026Via ingestion