E
Ernie
Guest
... they burn the damn building down! 
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-080119fiires-story,0,2873343.story
Well not really, but it's still pretty bad!!! The fire was on the fourth floor directly above my 3rd floor lab. The entire building is water and smoke damaged, and the basement is flooded from the water they pumped in to battle the fire. To make matters worse, it was below zero last weekend and there were and are no utilities in my building so the water pipes froze and burst causing further damage. I'm the lab manager and technician. Lee Ann looked at me with a very scared expression and asked if I still have a job... my job is very secure now because we have to start from SCRATCH! Just before I left, I froze down 6 patients worth of mesenchymal (not embryonic, but very precious) stem cells (a 2+ month, $5,000 process for preparation). I'd guess most of our instrumentation and computers are ruined. And ALL of our chemicals and samples kept below room temperature are shot too because no electricity means the freezers thawed and since the building is closed at least until this weekend, no one is inside to fill liquid nitrogen dewers in which cells are stored. The only notable orchids I had in the lab were a huge specimen of Onc. Sharry Baby and an awarded "heirloom" Cattleya division that Leo gave me (sorry Buddy!).
-Ernie
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-080119fiires-story,0,2873343.story
Well not really, but it's still pretty bad!!! The fire was on the fourth floor directly above my 3rd floor lab. The entire building is water and smoke damaged, and the basement is flooded from the water they pumped in to battle the fire. To make matters worse, it was below zero last weekend and there were and are no utilities in my building so the water pipes froze and burst causing further damage. I'm the lab manager and technician. Lee Ann looked at me with a very scared expression and asked if I still have a job... my job is very secure now because we have to start from SCRATCH! Just before I left, I froze down 6 patients worth of mesenchymal (not embryonic, but very precious) stem cells (a 2+ month, $5,000 process for preparation). I'd guess most of our instrumentation and computers are ruined. And ALL of our chemicals and samples kept below room temperature are shot too because no electricity means the freezers thawed and since the building is closed at least until this weekend, no one is inside to fill liquid nitrogen dewers in which cells are stored. The only notable orchids I had in the lab were a huge specimen of Onc. Sharry Baby and an awarded "heirloom" Cattleya division that Leo gave me (sorry Buddy!).
-Ernie
