Last Revised: February 16, 2018
A smokey fire forced the evacuation of the Clinical Research Building on March 31, 2011. The fire was caused by a research associate accidentally turning on the heat function instead of the stirrer on a hot plate resulting in the melting of a plastic container housing an electrophoresis unit. Lab staff must be careful when working with combination hot plates-stirrers. The placement of the heat and stirring controls are not consistent between different manufacturers and models.
![Melted container](/sites/default/files/inline-images/img_1635.jpg)
To reduce the possibility of this type of incident from happening again, EHRS has designed new labels to be used on hot plate/stirrer units. The labels can be adhered to the knob itself or placed just above as shown below. Click here to request labels.
![Labels](/sites/default/files/inline-images/hotplatelabel2.jpg)