I know we've got some hot scientists in this place but one of them ('V') actually caught fire this afternoon.
She lit a match, after noting the head was 'spiky', and some of the sulphur somehow flew backwards and next thing she knew her jumper was burning. V patted it out herself and is unharmed, if a little shaken. There's a burn mark on her clothing, which will be an interesting souvenir from her honours project.
It's not really a laughing matter. It is frightening how quickly a small incident could explode (ha ha) into something serious. Who would have thought that a defective match could do that? In the hands of a five year old, maybe, but an adult in a University lab?
The thing now of course is to make sure that it does not happen again. V went through the other matchboxes and found one defective match, which she discarded. But tomorrow I need to talk to the lab manager and ask her about an incident book (do we have one?) and ensure that everyone knows about this new hazard.
