PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Fire officials say a Portland high school science lab filled with smoke when water came in contact with a volatile metal. Medics and school nurses checked 11 students and a teacher who complained of respiratory problems.
Fire Bureau spokesman Paul Corah said the affected David Douglas High School students were taken Friday to several area hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries. Corah says 25 students were in the lab. The small explosion prompted evacuation of a 12-classrooom science wing.
David Douglas School District spokesman Dan McCue says the small release of gas came when someone turned the water on in a sink containing sodium metal, which is highly reactive in water.
McCue says classes continued for the rest of the day at the 3,000-student high school.
