Lessons Learned: Benzene Distillation Vapor Explosion and Fire

We present here a narrative of an incident that occurred in a chemistry laboratory while purifying benzene using a distillation apparatus. The incident resulted in an injury to a graduate student and a fire that caused approximately $3.5 million in damage including repair/refurbishment costs. Unfortunately, due to the extent of the fire, a direct cause of the incident could not be determined. The lessons learned from this incident that could have potentially prevented the incident altogether, or at least reduced damage, include performing a risk assessment of both the experiment and the situation at the time, maintaining proper housekeeping of the lab, maintaining an updated and accurate chemical inventory, checking in on long duration experiments, always calling for back-up, ensuring the lab and buildings are up to code, wearing proper personal protective equipment, and always calling 911 in an emergency.