A birthday celebration turned calamitous early this morning when a candles on a cake sparked a blaze at a Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) dormitory, injuring 12 students including one seriously.
According to Ming Pao, about 20 students were attending the party in the multi-purpose activity area on the 12th floor of Wai Lun House at HKBU’s Kowloon Tong campus when the fire broke out about 1am.
The blaze started as students were playing with flour when the candles on the birthday cake were lit, according to a Facebook post by HKBU’s student magazine.
This caused what’s known as a “dust explosion” which involves the rapid combustion of fine particles suspended in the air.
Fire services were immediately dispatched to the campus and 12 students — eight female and four male aged 18 to 23 — were taken to Queen Elizabeth and Kwong Wah Hospitals for injuries to their hands, feet, and face, Apple Daily reports.
A 21-year-old female student surnamed Chan was in a serious condition, while three female and two male students were reported to be in a stable condition, and the remaining six have been discharged.
Emergency services are investigating the incident.
For a dust explosion to happen you need four things: a combustible dust at the right concentration level (like flour), oxygen, an enclosed space (like an activity room in a student dormitory), and an ignition source (like a birthday candle).
Many common everyday items like grain, starch, sugar, powdered milk, cocoa, coffee, and pollen can cause a dust explosion if there is a high enough concentration of these materials suspended in the air.
So, be careful Coconauts.
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