Equipment Damage from Smoke

[Claire Brown]

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This is a question I’m sorry to have to ask but there are many very diverse opinions, so I wanted to see what the community says. I’m happy to summarize the results of my replies in case anyone else is unfortunate enough to have to deal with this situation in the future.

We had a fire in one of our buildings on July 13th (Friday of course 😊). Thankfully it was late in the evening, so the building was relatively empty and no one was hurt. There was no water damage to any of the equipment. The building has been closed for the last week and a half and the main reason they are citing is air quality. Although there was not a lot of smoke in the building there was a smell of smoke throughout. The air was circulated throughout the building for a few days before the ventilation was shut down.

My questions are:


  1.  Is it fine to just use the instruments when the building reopens?
  2.  Could there be damage to filters, mirrors, lenses from deposits of ash/dust on the surfaces?
  3.  Would using the microscopes and high-powered lasers potentially cause further damage if there are deposits on the surfaces?
  4.  Would it be best to do a full service of the microscopes and get all the surfaces cleaned before putting them back into use?


Of course, everyone is anxious to get back to work since things will have been shut down for about two weeks but I would rather be careful and get things done properly now rather than run into unknown intermittent problems over the next few years.

Any thoughts are welcome.

Sincerely,

Claire


Claire M. Brown, PhD - McGill University
Associate Professor, Physiology
Director, Advanced BioImaging Facility (ABIF)
3649 Promenade Sir William Osler - Bellini Building - Rm 137A - Montreal - Quebec - H3G 0B1

[Elizabeth Nickless]

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HI, we have recently had a similar experience, (6 weeks ago) although  it was the UPS  of the Confocal Microscope that caught fire.  We only had slight heat damage to the screen on the scope  but due to smoke damage  and the risk of retardant having got into  the system.  The supplier of the scope could not guarantee that parts were not damaged or that further damage would not occur  because of possible damage to coatings on lenses and mirrors etc.

Also there was the risk  of smoke and particle  entrance into electronic parts  and therefore no guarantee that major electronic faults would not occur due to this alone.  Our instrument was approx. 18months old.

Our instrument was therefore written off.  We can possibly  retain  some filters and lenses by sending them to the company to be checked and cleaned.

If you have smoke damage  only I would recommend you get a complete service check  on any advanced  systems that you have. On simpler scopes I would still recommend   a service and clean and light sources cleaned and checked,  anything where smoke could have got inside.

Regards

Liz

Dr. Elizabeth Nickless
Associate Research Scientist
Food Structure and Design
Fonterra Co-operative Group Limited

[hidden email]
DDI [phone] Ext 61083; Fonterra Research and Development Centre, Private Bag 11 029, Palmerston North 4442, Dairy Farm Road, Palmerston North 4442, New Zealand.
www.fonterra.com


-----Original Message-----
From: Confocal Microscopy List [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Claire Brown, Dr.
Sent: Wednesday, 25 July 2018 8:50 a.m.
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Equipment Damage from Smoke

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Post images on http://www.imgur.com and include the link in your posting.
*****

This is a question I’m sorry to have to ask but there are many very diverse opinions, so I wanted to see what the community says. I’m happy to summarize the results of my replies in case anyone else is unfortunate enough to have to deal with this situation in the future.

We had a fire in one of our buildings on July 13th (Friday of course 😊). Thankfully it was late in the evening, so the building was relatively empty and no one was hurt. There was no water damage to any of the equipment. The building has been closed for the last week and a half and the main reason they are citing is air quality. Although there was not a lot of smoke in the building there was a smell of smoke throughout. The air was circulated throughout the building for a few days before the ventilation was shut down.

My questions are:


  1.  Is it fine to just use the instruments when the building reopens?
  2.  Could there be damage to filters, mirrors, lenses from deposits of ash/dust on the surfaces?
  3.  Would using the microscopes and high-powered lasers potentially cause further damage if there are deposits on the surfaces?
  4.  Would it be best to do a full service of the microscopes and get all the surfaces cleaned before putting them back into use?


Of course, everyone is anxious to get back to work since things will have been shut down for about two weeks but I would rather be careful and get things done properly now rather than run into unknown intermittent problems over the next few years.

Any thoughts are welcome.

Sincerely,

Claire


Claire M. Brown, PhD - McGill University Associate Professor, Physiology Director, Advanced BioImaging Facility (ABIF)
3649 Promenade Sir William Osler - Bellini Building - Rm 137A - Montreal - Quebec - H3G 0B1


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[Straatman, Kees (Dr.)]

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Dear Claire

We had a few years ago the same problem and were advised to do a full service of the microscope systems as well as a cleaning of the computers and other electrical equipment as soot can cause damage to the electrical circuits. We also had some kind of electrical air cleaners in all rooms to extract soot out of the air as the air circulation system was bringing in new soot all the time. These were there for several weeks till we got the all clear.

We were also supplied with a special cleaning solution and had to clean all surfaces in the microscope room and I guess due to the air circulation system had to clean the more important areas a few times.

High powered laser will damage the mirrors and filters if there is dirt on them.

Good luck

Kees


Dr Ir K.R. Straatman
Senior Experimental Officer
Advanced Imaging Facility
Centre for Core Biotechnology Services
University of Leicester
www.le.ac.uk/advanced-imaging-facility



-----Original Message-----
From: Confocal Microscopy List [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Claire Brown, Dr.
Sent: 24 July 2018 21:50
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Equipment Damage from Smoke

*****
To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
Post images on http://www.imgur.com and include the link in your posting.
*****

This is a question I’m sorry to have to ask but there are many very diverse opinions, so I wanted to see what the community says. I’m happy to summarize the results of my replies in case anyone else is unfortunate enough to have to deal with this situation in the future.

We had a fire in one of our buildings on July 13th (Friday of course 😊). Thankfully it was late in the evening, so the building was relatively empty and no one was hurt. There was no water damage to any of the equipment. The building has been closed for the last week and a half and the main reason they are citing is air quality. Although there was not a lot of smoke in the building there was a smell of smoke throughout. The air was circulated throughout the building for a few days before the ventilation was shut down.

My questions are:


  1.  Is it fine to just use the instruments when the building reopens?
  2.  Could there be damage to filters, mirrors, lenses from deposits of ash/dust on the surfaces?
  3.  Would using the microscopes and high-powered lasers potentially cause further damage if there are deposits on the surfaces?
  4.  Would it be best to do a full service of the microscopes and get all the surfaces cleaned before putting them back into use?


Of course, everyone is anxious to get back to work since things will have been shut down for about two weeks but I would rather be careful and get things done properly now rather than run into unknown intermittent problems over the next few years.

Any thoughts are welcome.

Sincerely,

Claire


Claire M. Brown, PhD - McGill University Associate Professor, Physiology Director, Advanced BioImaging Facility (ABIF)
3649 Promenade Sir William Osler - Bellini Building - Rm 137A - Montreal - Quebec - H3G 0B1

[Craig Brideau]

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Hi Clare, depending on how much smoke was/is present in the ventilation for
the room, you could have pretty serious contamination of all surfaces. You
will want to notify your insurer (you've probably already done this but I
figured I should mention it) of the specific impact the fine particulate
could have had on your systems. If it was more than a trivial amount of
smoke you will need to tear down and clean the equipment pretty thoroughly.
If it was a large amount of smoke the the equipment is probably a
write-off. I would at least remove a block component like a scan head and
take it to an area with fresh air. If you still smell 'burning' when you
crack the scanhead open that implies significant particulate infiltration.
A quick inspection of the internal optics should also give you some idea of
the impact on the internals. The electronics may also be impacted by this
as particulate gets pulled in by the cooling fans, so a peek in the case
can give a quick assessment of the amount pulled into the chassis of
components like controllers.
Hopefully there was only a minor amount of smoke and none of this will
matter, but you should still probably notify your insurer so they are aware
of any potential future problems for their records.

Craig


On Wed, Jul 25, 2018 at 2:57 AM Straatman, Kees (Dr.) <[hidden email]>
wrote:

> *****
> To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
> http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
> Post images on http://www.imgur.com and include the link in your posting.
> *****
>
> Dear Claire
>
> We had a few years ago the same problem and were advised to do a full
> service of the microscope systems as well as a cleaning of the computers
> and other electrical equipment as soot can cause damage to the electrical
> circuits. We also had some kind of electrical air cleaners in all rooms to
> extract soot out of the air as the air circulation system was bringing in
> new soot all the time. These were there for several weeks till we got the
> all clear.
>
> We were also supplied with a special cleaning solution and had to clean
> all surfaces in the microscope room and I guess due to the air circulation
> system had to clean the more important areas a few times.
>
> High powered laser will damage the mirrors and filters if there is dirt on
> them.
>
> Good luck
>
> Kees
>
>
> Dr Ir K.R. Straatman
> Senior Experimental Officer
> Advanced Imaging Facility
> Centre for Core Biotechnology Services
> University of Leicester
> www.le.ac.uk/advanced-imaging-facility
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Confocal Microscopy List [mailto:[hidden email]]
> On Behalf Of Claire Brown, Dr.
> Sent: 24 July 2018 21:50
> To: [hidden email]
> Subject: Equipment Damage from Smoke
>
> *****
> To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
> http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
> Post images on http://www.imgur.com and include the link in your posting.
> *****
>
> This is a question I’m sorry to have to ask but there are many very
> diverse opinions, so I wanted to see what the community says. I’m happy to
> summarize the results of my replies in case anyone else is unfortunate
> enough to have to deal with this situation in the future.
>
> We had a fire in one of our buildings on July 13th (Friday of course 😊).
> Thankfully it was late in the evening, so the building was relatively empty
> and no one was hurt. There was no water damage to any of the equipment. The
> building has been closed for the last week and a half and the main reason
> they are citing is air quality. Although there was not a lot of smoke in
> the building there was a smell of smoke throughout. The air was circulated
> throughout the building for a few days before the ventilation was shut down.
>
> My questions are:
>
>
>   1.  Is it fine to just use the instruments when the building reopens?
>   2.  Could there be damage to filters, mirrors, lenses from deposits of
> ash/dust on the surfaces?
>   3.  Would using the microscopes and high-powered lasers potentially
> cause further damage if there are deposits on the surfaces?
>   4.  Would it be best to do a full service of the microscopes and get all
> the surfaces cleaned before putting them back into use?
>
>
> Of course, everyone is anxious to get back to work since things will have
> been shut down for about two weeks but I would rather be careful and get
> things done properly now rather than run into unknown intermittent problems
> over the next few years.
>
> Any thoughts are welcome.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Claire
>
>
> Claire M. Brown, PhD - McGill University Associate Professor, Physiology
> Director, Advanced BioImaging Facility (ABIF)
> 3649 Promenade Sir William Osler - Bellini Building - Rm 137A - Montreal -
> Quebec - H3G 0B1
>
>