Old Chemical Found; Students Evacuated

Three buildings at Antelope Valley College in Lancaster were evacuated Wednesday after a potentially explosive chemical was discovered stored in a laboratory there.

There were no injuries.

About 20 students were forced to leave between 3 and 4:15 p.m. while members of the Los Angeles County Fire Department’s hazardous materials team removed a small flask filled with crystallized picric acid from a laboratory storage area, authorities said.

A lab technician “came across a small amount” of the chemical in an anatomy laboratory, college spokesman Steve Standerfer said. “In its liquid form, picric acid is perfectly safe, but when picric acid gets old and unstable, it can be explosive.”

Upon hearing of the discovery, the Fire Department advised college officials to evacuate the west side of campus until the chemical was removed, Standerfer said.

The chemical had originally been used in lab tests but had not been used since at least 1984, Standerfer said. “Apparently it had just been kind of forgotten about,” he said.