A chemical mixture created during what officials describe as a classroom demonstration prompted Santa Rosa Junior College to evacuate a campus building and call in the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office bomb squad, which used a robot to haul the materials away before destroying them in a controlled detonation. No injuries were reported, and school officials say the surrounding community was never at risk.
According to The Press Democrat, campus police contacted the sheriff's office for help safely neutralizing the chemicals after the mixture was discovered, and the bomb squad disposed of the explosive material that had been accidentally created at the college. Santa Rosa Junior College spokesperson Sarah Laggos told the paper the two chemicals involved were ammonium chloride and potassium chlorate, mixed for a chemistry demonstration at the Lindley Center. A separate university chemistry demonstration guide describes a similar classroom experiment using barium hydroxide and ammonium chloride to display an endothermic reaction — an account that differs from the chemical pairing Laggos described, and the dossier does not reconcile the two versions.
Stock Room Spill Triggers Evacuation
The incident unfolded at the Lindley Center for STEM Education, where SRJC District Police were informed of a spill and chemical mixture in the building's stock room, per theoakleafnews.com. The Oak Leaf reports the sheriff's department received a call from the Santa Rosa campus just after 10:30 a.m. requesting bomb or explosive disposal, prompting district police to contact the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department, which then deployed its bomb squad unit. The Press Democrat's account places the bomb squad's arrival shortly after 11 a.m., and the two outlets differ on whether the response occurred Tuesday or the following day — a discrepancy this account does not attempt to resolve.
The building was evacuated as a precaution while the materials were removed, and the bomb squad remained on scene for about three hours. Authorities used a robot to move the chemicals to a safe disposal location, specifically the empty grounds previously occupied by Beck Hall, where officers remotely detonated the material. The Oak Leaf similarly reported that officers detonated the chemicals in the quad between the Lindley Center and Milo Baker Hall.
No Danger to Campus, Officials Say
Laggos said in an email that there was no risk to the surrounding community or nearby buildings at any point during the incident, and no injuries were reported. The Oak Leaf's reporting echoed that assessment, noting that officials maintained there was no risk to the community or surrounding buildings at any time. Classes at the Lindley Center resumed at 4:30 p.m. as planned, allowing the campus to return to its normal schedule the same day.
A Familiar Pattern in Campus Lab Incidents
Unplanned chemical reactions in academic settings aren't unique to Sonoma County. In 2017, a University of Bristol chemistry laboratory was evacuated after a PhD student unintentionally formed triacetone triperoxide, or TATP, during a routine procedure, according to The Guardian. Police, firefighters and bomb-disposal experts were called to the building and carried out a controlled explosion of the substance, and no one was injured. The university said at the time that the student had been following a published method and that the risk of TATP forming as a byproduct had already been identified during a risk assessment.
Both cases followed a similar arc: a precautionary evacuation, a specialized bomb-disposal response, and no reported injuries once the material was safely destroyed. For SRJC, the episode ended with students and faculty back in the Lindley Center by late afternoon, chemistry stock room incident behind them.
