Campus Alert Archive
UC Irvine

Overnight Lab Fumes in Bio Sciences III Send a Cleanup Crew to the Hospital

CAchemical spillemergency notificationmedium confidence

A chemical spill in a third-floor laboratory of UC Irvine's bio-chemistry building just after midnight on August 14, 2015, produced fumes that overcame a five-member cleanup crew and led to four people being hospitalized. Two researchers first noticed the fumes; the third floor was evacuated and 25 firefighters, including 10 hazmat specialists, used a six-gas monitor to clear the air.

Alerts
1
Response
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Killed
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Injured
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Institution
University of California, Irvine
Public R1 · CA
ZotALERT
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 reconstruction144 chars
ZotALERT: Hazardous materials incident at the Bio Sciences III building. Avoid the area. The third floor has been evacuated while crews respond.

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

Reconstructed paraphrase: local outlets described UC Irvine's emergency response and evacuation of the third floor, but no source published the verbatim ZotALERT wording.
The incident began just after midnight when two researchers doing unrelated work noticed the fumes, an unusually early-hours lab emergency.
Four people, including members of a cleanup crew who were overcome by nausea and shortness of breath, were hospitalized.
Context

Background

Just after midnight on August 14, 2015, a chemical spill in a third-floor lab of UC Irvine's bio-chemistry building (Bio Sciences III, on Biological Court) produced fumes that two researchers doing unrelated work noticed first, CBS Los Angeles reported. A five-member cleanup crew that responded was overcome by the fumes, reporting nausea and shortness of breath before calling 911. Patch reported that four people were hospitalized and that 25 firefighters, including 10 hazmat specialists, used a six-gas monitor to confirm the air was clear. The third floor was evacuated during the response. The early-morning timing meant the building was largely empty, which limited exposure.
Analysis

Key Findings

An overnight lab spill — discovered by researchers working unrelated late hours — escalated when the cleanup crew itself was overcome by fumes
Four people were hospitalized, underscoring that responders can become secondary casualties at chemical incidents
Twenty-five firefighters including 10 hazmat specialists used six-gas monitoring to clear the building before reentry
Outcome
Four people were hospitalized after being overcome by fumes. Firefighters cleared the building's air with gas monitoring and the third floor was evacuated; no lasting injuries were reported.
Provenance

Sources

  1. News
    HazMat Situation Prompts Evacuation Of Bio-Chemistry Building At UC Irvine - CBS Los Angeles
    cbsnews.com
  2. News
    UCI Lab Accident Triggers Hazmat Evacuation - Patch
    patch.com
Tags
chemical-spillfumeshazmatlab-safetycaliforniaovernightemergency-notification
Added May 2026Updated May 2026Via ingestion