FIRE!

Today at work during one lesson I had to put out TWO fires.
BIG fires.
I extinguished them with a bucket of water.

This is what happened:

We were heating water in boiling tubes suspended over  propanenol fuel burners to see how good it was as a fuel. we compared the results to ethanol and methanol.
see, on paper, it sounds good.

The error: we suspended the boiling tubes over the fuel burners using clamp stands and the clamps had rubber coated ends. (NB: this would have been fine if the students had angled the boiling tube.. most did..two didn't... some you win, some you lose)

The rubber caught fire.

Today we established the most efficient fuel out of enthanol, mentanol and propanenol was rubber.
it was also the worst smelling.
That was not the desired learning outcome.

The worst part of all this is that the first thing students do when faced with a massive fire is FILM IT on their mobile phone.
I will be a youtube sensation any time now.

ah, and after I'd extinguished the burning clamps and left them in a bucket of water one of the kids was like "well, they had a viking burial"