Another alcohol/flame incident in New York City

I didn't get wind of this until someone posted it in the comments. There's plenty of coverage of it in the media, including from the New York Daily News, NBC New York and the New York Times. Here's the damning passage from the Daily News:

Marcus, a 9th grade student, heard that the students in the class were learning about the different properties of fire. “The crazy thing is, I had chemistry for fourth period,” she said. “I was supposed to be in that class too. We already did that experiment the week before and nothing happened.” 

Marcus explained the experiment involved making a flame change color. “It was kind of dangerous when he did it but he was very careful,” she said. “I'm guessing it was the same way with this.” 

Marcus said the teacher told her class it was a mistake with the alcohol he was using in the experiment. “I think that while he was pouring the alcohol in, the fire caught onto the bottle by accident," she said.

Yet another incident where there was a combination of:

• fire
• alcohol being added to the flames
• from a bulk alcohol container with
• students being too close

that has caused injuries and teachers getting fired and lawsuits being filed in this country time and time again.

Another reminder that the American Chemical Society's Committee on Chemical Safety specifically asks teachers to "Stop Using the Rainbow Demonstration."*

*The indication that it was a Rainbow-related is this comment in the New York Times story: "One of the injured students, Elizebeth Diaz, 15, said the chemistry teacher was conducting an experiment to demonstrate how an atom goes from ground state to excited state."