Emergency vehicles were called to clean up a chemical spill in the Laboratory Sciences Building Monday night, interrupting an organic chemistry exam and cutting off traffic on Snow Way drive for nearly two hours.

A graduate student spilled three chemicals that produced a tear gas-like substance in one of the building’s labs Monday night. The issue was taken care of and the building was usable in time for classes Tuesday morning.

The student needed to have his eyes flushed and was driven to the hospital by WUPD as a precaution, but was otherwise fine.

Students taking the test said that there were only a few minutes left in the exam when the alarms went off. The Teaching Assistant (TA) proctoring the exam spoke to other people in the building and found out about the spill, Bruce Backus, assistant vice chancellor of environmental health and safety said. Members of his office were called to the scene and were still investigating the incident Wednesday night.

Even as the alarms went off, students continued taking the exam. Clayton Fire Chief Mark Thorp said that a fireman had to instruct the test takers to leave the building even after the alarms had sounded.

“The fire alarm went off when there were about 12 minutes of the test left…then the police came and said to get out of the building, and that was with seven minutes left,” sophomore Michael Harding said.

Students say the TA gave them the option of staying in the building to complete the exam, or leaving due to the alarm.

“The alarm went off and it was really obnoxious, and clearly not conducive to focusing,” sophomore Miles Black said. “Everyone thought it was going to shut off really soon, [and] the TA said we could leave now or we could stay around to finish [the test].”

But some felt like the TA made them choose between their grades and their safety.

“[The TA] was basically saying that if we were really concerned about the fire alarms we should turn in the tests, but if we were really concerned about [organic chemistry] we should stay and finish,” Harding said.

Some students had already completed the exam, and left the room.

“My understanding is he gave students option of handing in exams or, if needed, to arrange to get a room to give students a few more minutes,” Backus said.

Students moved to Louderman after waiting outside as the emergency crew inspected the building.

“Everyone went out for a good 20 minutes, and then we moved over to Louderman and took the last 10 minutes of the test. It was just really irregular,” Harding said.

Backus said that all chemistry TAs and faculty are taught standard safety procedures each year by the office of environmental health and safety. His office is now checking in with TAs to make sure they do know how to react in emergency situations.

“Everybody should know that if there’s a fire alarm people have to evacuate the building,” organic chemistry professor John-Stephen Taylor said.

The building was evacuated when the Clayton hazardous materials response team arrived at 8:44 p.m. The team, consisting of seven fire trucks and an ambulance, left the scene at 10:37 p.m. Meanwhile, police officers rerouted all traffic around the building.

The incident occurred after a graduate student mixed 30mL of lithium, dibromo-o-xylene and tetrahydrofuran in a 50mL flask on a bench top instead of under a fume hood. The top came off the flask and vapor came out, irritating the student’s eyes, Backus said. According to Backus, other people nearby pulled the fire alarm and recommended the building be evacuated and ventilation systems turned off.

“My staffer there went in and the only concern we had after vapors had been dissipated was the trace amount of lithium might be present, since that’s a reactive metal,” Backus said. “We just covered areas of the flask with oil, which smothered it, sealed up lab, [and] cleaned up [the] next day.”

With additional reporting by Michael Tabb.