Students Criticize Teacher in Science Experiment Fire

A Santa Clarita teenager underwent his second operation for severe burns Monday, as classmates and friends criticized the high school science teacher who staged an experiment that exploded.

“It seems there was a problem on the teacher’s part safety-wise,” said Lauren Geissler, 17, a senior at William S. Hart High School who is the student member of the Hart School District Board of Trustees.

“They weren’t even wearing goggles. . . . There weren’t fire extinguishers out there,” she said, statements confirmed by a Sheriff’s Department arson investigator.

“It could’ve been prevented--everything could’ve been prevented,” said Lindsey McPhail, 17, of Valencia, a student in the physics class who witnessed the accident.

The families of the two seriously injured boys, however, said it was still too early to assign blame.

On the Hart High football field last Wednesday, a class of about 35 students conducted an experiment in the velocity of flying objects by firing tennis balls from two cannons made of apple juice cans, propelled by wood alcohol.

Christopher James, 17, of Stevenson Ranch, received life-threatening burns when one of the cannons exploded in his hands, setting him afire. Nolan LeMar 17, of Castaic, who was standing nearby with a bottle of alcohol, was also seriously burned. His injuries are not considered life-threatening and doctors expect him to recover fully.

Christopher, whose windpipe and lungs were scorched by superheated gas, underwent a tracheotomy Monday allowing him to breath more easily, said Dr. A. Richard Grossman, medical director of the Grossman Burn Center at Sherman Oaks Hospital.

“He did quite well,” Grossman said, calling Christopher “stoic” and “a fighter.”