Earlier this morning, Forensics Analytical Lab in Hayward called the fire department for help because they'd spilled a bunch of picric acid.

Dry picric acid is apparently very sensitive to shock and friction, and can explode like dynamite. This one article we found says it blows up when you drop a 2 kg weight on it, from just 36 cm above. (Metric units because the article is Canadian.) Yikes! So all the other businesses in the area have been evacuated, and now they're saying they may go ahead and just blow up the acid now in a relatively controlled setting, so it won't blow up later accidentally.

Forensics Analytical does a number of (duh) forensics test, like candies for lead, or helping identify 9/11 victims. Picric acid should be stored wet if at all possible, and is used primarily to stain samples for microscope examination. Picric acid was also implicated in the Halifax Explosion of a ship in Canada in 1917, which is still one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history (the things you can find on Wikipedia, goodness).

That's a picture of picric acid to your right.