At 9:20 AM CDT on September 12, 2024, a graduate student spilled nitric acid in a basement lab in Voss-Kovach Hall at the University of Minnesota Duluth, triggering a small chemical explosion. UMD pushed a SAFE-U emergency alert at 9:58 AM CDT ordering Voss-Kovach Hall evacuated, followed by a second alert evacuating the connected Engineering and Endazhi gikinoo'amaading buildings because they share a ventilation system. The graduate student was taken to the hospital with minor injuries, and all three buildings were declared safe and reopened at 3:53 PM CDT.
3 messages in sequence · 1 verified verbatim
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SAFE-U alert text quoted in The Bark UMD student newspaper article on the September 12, 2024 chemical explosionA message was sent at this point in the sequence; its exact wording has not yet been recovered from the official record, so no text is shown. This site never paraphrases or reconstructs alert wording. Markers like this one keep the emergency's true shape and become word-for-word messages as recovery reaches the source.
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Campus Alert Archive. "University of Minnesota Duluth: Nitric acid spill triggers a lab explosion; three connected buildings evacuated." Incident of September 12, 2024. Added May 2026; last updated August 2026. https://campusalertarchive.com/case/university-of-minnesota-duluth-chemical-explosion-2024-09-12/
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