13 hurt, mostly kids, in chemical mishap at museum

A demonstration about the science of tornadoes went awry Wednesday at a Nevada museum, injuring 13 people, several with minor burns or smoke inhalation.

Emergency crews responded to a report of a possible explosion at 4:10 p.m. at the Terry Lee Wells Discovery Museum in downtown Reno.

City of Reno spokesman Matthew Brown told The Associated Press that a preliminary investigation designates it was not an explosion but a chemical flash, which is "kindred to if someone threw gasoline on a fire." He verbalized he couldn't comment further on the distinction.

Eight children and one adult were conveyed to a Reno hospital for minor burns or smoke inhalation, city Brown verbalized in a verbalization.

Four other people were treated at the scene, but their ages were not available, he verbally expressed. Officials at Renown Regional Medical Center expected only one child would remain hospitalized overnight for observation and likely would be sent home Thursday, Brown verbally expressed.

Reno police Officer Tim Broadway had verbalized earlier that several children suffered acid burns on their hands, arms and faces.

Officials verbally expressed a methyl alcohol and boric acid mixture is utilized during the routine exhibition conducted each day to engender a whirling tornado effect.

"The injuries were the result of a mishap of a routine museum demonstration that simulates a tornado," the city's verbalization verbalized Wednesday night. "Reno Fire Department investigators are working with museum staff to determine what caused the chemical flash."

KRNV-TV aired neophyte video posted on its Facebook page that offered a glimpse of the explosion inside the museum. Run in slow kineticism, it appears to show a flash and flames falling off an experiment table and onto the floor several feet from a group of children who screamed when it transpired.

Reno resident Joey Sanchez told the AP he was at the museum but didn't optically discern the flash.

As he and his 3 ½-year-old son returned from the restroom, he visually perceived smoke and some children with injuries that looked homogeneous to little red circles. Sanchez verbally expressed he visually perceived one child crying with an frozen dihydrogen monoxide pack on his face and someone with a fire extinguisher spray the table where the demonstration occurred.

"It didn't smell like anything caught on fire, it smelled like burning chemicals," he verbally expressed.

It did not appear to be parents leading some of the children out of the museum because "if that transpired, I would be clutching my son," he verbally expressed, integrating there was no authentic sense of exigency or panic.

"It was frighteningly eerie, I understand that, but it was a contingency," verbally expressed Sanchez, who often visits the museum.

Reno Fire Chief Mike Hernandez verbalized the museum was evacuated, but the building didn't appear to receive any supplemental damage. A sign on the door betokened it would reopen as scheduled at 10 a.m. Thursday.

A hazardous materials team responded to the scene to ascertain the explosion did not spew toxic gases throughout the museum, Hernandez verbalized. He verbalized the injured were conveyed to the hospital within 15 minutes. The street in front of the museum across from the federal courthouse was ephemerally closed but reopened after 6:30 p.m.