Another funny story -- aside from the fire drills, we once had to evacuate an entire wing of the school because we were testing the energy released by various things (peanuts, paraffin, methylated spirits etc) by setting them on fire and seeing how long it took them to heat up some water to 100 degrees.

It was going fine, until we tried burning 25ml of paraffin, and someone set fire to the curtains in the lab. One moment there was a small pool of paraffin, next moment FIRE RAGING ON THE CURTAINS and the fire alarm ringing throughout the building.

That was quite entertaining.

(I haven't even told you the story about the science teacher who cracked the plexiglass screen. You know the big thick screen they put up in front of "dangerous" experiments to protect the students?

Well the chemistry teacher was doing an experiment with fire and gunpowder and I think he mismeasured the amount he put in, because there was a flame and an explosion and the screen that was supposed to absorb the explosion and protect the students........... not so much -- it cracked and split in two. It didn't shatter but it wasn't entirely useful after that and the class ended a lot earlier than we were expecting.