Campus Alert Archive
Penn State

A Distillation Experiment Exploded in Fenske Lab at Penn State, Injuring a Graduate Student

PAotheradvisorymedium confidence
Confirmed Threat

At 12:45 PM on Friday, March 24, 2000, an explosion in Room 109 of Fenske Laboratory at Penn State injured graduate assistant David Weller Jr., who was running a routine chemical engineering distillation experiment. Weller sustained minor cuts on his hands and chest from flying glass because the safety hood covering the apparatus was slightly raised at the time of the explosion. He was treated and released from Centre Community Hospital the same evening. Penn State Police Services and Environmental Health and Safety responded to the scene.

Alerts
1
Response
0 min
Killed
0
Injured
1
Institution
Pennsylvania State University
Public R1 · PA
~41,000 studentsNone (pre-mass-notification era; Penn State Police and EHS response)
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

1 message in sequence

Some alert texts below are approximate reconstructions from news coverage, not confirmed verbatim transcripts. Reconstructed texts are shown in italic with a dashed border. Verified verbatim texts have a solid border and are marked accordingly.

INITIAL ALERTPhone
Approximate reconstruction362 chars
[Penn State Police Services and Penn State Environmental Health and Safety have responded to an explosion in Room 109 of Fenske Laboratory. A student has sustained injuries. Please avoid the area of Fenske Lab at this time. The situation is under control and there is no broader threat to the campus community. Further information will be provided as available.]

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

Penn State Police received the report at 12:45 PM on March 24, 2000; the exact time of the explosion itself may have been moments before the call
David Weller Jr., a graduate assistant in the chemical engineering department, was running a routine distillation experiment when the explosion occurred
Weller's injuries resulted from flying glass; the safety hood covering the experiment was 'slightly raised open' at the time of the blast
In 2000, Penn State had no SMS or broadcast email mass-notification system; notification of the campus community was through press release and the Daily Collegian student newspaper
Context

Background

The Fenske Laboratory explosion at Penn State University on March 24, 2000 is a representative example of the lab-safety incidents that periodically struck research universities in the pre-modern campus alerting era. Fenske Laboratory is a chemical engineering research building at Penn State's University Park campus, named for the pioneering petroleum engineer Merrell Fenske. When graduate assistant David Weller Jr. was running a routine distillation experiment in Room 109 on the Friday afternoon of March 24, 2000, the apparatus exploded -- because the safety hood covering the experiment was slightly raised open. The blast sent glass fragments into Weller's hands and chest; he was transported to Centre Community Hospital and released the same evening after treatment for minor cuts. Penn State Police Services and Environmental Health and Safety responded to the scene at 12:45 PM. The building was secured and the area cleared. In 2000, Penn State had no SMS or broadcast-email emergency notification system; the incident was communicated to the broader campus through the Daily Collegian and a university press statement. The Fenske explosion came three years before Congress passed the HEOA emergency-notification amendments, which would require universities to implement mass-notification systems capable of reaching the entire campus community within minutes.
Outcome
David Weller Jr., a chemical engineering graduate assistant, was treated and released from Centre Community Hospital for minor cuts to his hands and chest from flying glass. Building was secured and EHS investigators responded.
Provenance

Sources

  1. Student Paper
    Campus lab explosion injures one - The Daily Collegian
    psucollegian.com
  2. News
    Penn State student hurt in laboratory explosion - NBC Philadelphia
    nbcphiladelphia.com
  3. Source
    Then and Now: Fenske Laboratory - Penn Stater Magazine
    pennstatermag.com
Tags
lab-accidentexplosionchemical-engineeringpre-modern-alertingpennsylvaniapublic-r12000sinjurylaboratory-safety
Added May 2026Updated May 2026Via ingestion