No one was hurt, but 22 dorm residents are displaced after flooding from the fire response.
A Brigham Young University student’s attempt at making homemade rocket fuel ended in an explosion in his dorm over the weekend. Now, firefighters are warning students to “keep your experiments in the lab” as 22 students are displaced following the fiery blast.
No one was injured in the Sunday explosion in Provo, Utah.
“It is clear that this situation could have been much worse and we are grateful that no one was injured,” the BYU Police Department said in a statement.
It all started around 4:30 p.m. Sunday, when local firefighters and campus police were summoned to a building in the Heritage Halls dorm to respond to a fire alarm, sprinklers being set off and a flood on the main floor.
They later discovered one of the residents in the dorm had allegedly been attempting to make homemade rocket fuel on the stove of the dorm’s kitchen “when the volatile mixture suddenly exploded into a fireball,” authorities said.
Flames from the explosion had engulfed the walls, and while the sprinklers were able to contain the damage and firefighters were able to put out the remainder of the fires, the experiment left scorch marks on the walls and ceilings of the kitchen, photos shared by authorities showed.
As a result of the sprinklers and response from firefighters, the dorm was flooded, displacing 22 residents.
While the student in question is not facing any charges, authorities did urge for students to “please keep your experiments in the lab and supervised by trained professionals.”
