CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : FULLERTON : Prank Forces Evacuation of Science Building

A practical joke forced hundreds of Cal State Fullerton students to take final exams on a grassy quad and in the football stadium while the Orange County Sheriff’s bomb squad searched the science building for traces of a toxic substance. Custodians accidentally exploded pellets of nitrogen triiodide that someone had hidden under toilet seats in Miles D. McCarthy Hall, the largest building on campus. No one was seriously injured by the chemical compound, which made loud popping noises and released toxic gases, but firefighters evacuated 300 people from the building and closed it to remove the remaining pellets from the fifth-floor bathrooms. “What we have is apparently an end-of-term prank that’s gone awry,” said Sylvia Palmer Mudrick, spokeswoman for the city of Fullerton. “The intention was someone would sit down, it would pop--ha ha we would have a great prank.” Campus police are investigating.