Edmonton fire crews are on the scene of a chemical explosion Wednesday afternoon on the main University of Alberta campus.
The explosion was in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Research building near 116th Street and 91st Avenue.
Firefighters got a call about alarms ringing in the building at 1:40 p.m. and arrived on scene within six minutes, Edmonton Fire Rescue Services spokesperson Maya Filipovic told CBC News.
By that time, the building had already been evacuated.
“Upon arriving, we realized there had been a nitric acid explosion, so our Hazmat [hazardous materials] crew was called in,” Filipovic said in an emailed statement. “We currently have five crews on scene.”
According to the PubChem open chemistry database, nitric acid is a colourless liquid used in the manufacture of inorganic and organic nitrates and nitro compounds for fertilizers, dye intermediates, explosives and many organic chemicals.