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From CBC | Technology & Science News:
A curious chemical reaction on the concrete steps of the University of New Brunswick's Lady Beaverbrook Gym led to the evacuation of the building and closing of streets around the Fredericton campus on Wednesday.
Emergency officials received a report Wednesday morning that a concrete step at the back of the gym was smouldering and smoking.
Assistant deputy fire chief Bob Martin told CBC News he's never seen anything like it.
Smoke was rising out of the concrete steps on the Forest Hill Road side of the building and the steps were at a temperature of 150 C when emergency crews first arrived, Martin said.
Thermal-imaging cameras were used to monitor the temperature of the steps, which rose from 150 C to 260 C before eventually cooling to 21 C.
Martin said the reaction appears to be linked to an epoxy used to connect a metal rail to the steps when they were constructed more than 40 years ago.
"At that time, they used to use a sulphur base," he said. "They would pour it in a liquid
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