By Chester Seaton, News

20/3- New dispersions have been cast upon Nor Easter’s Academic Alliance of Alchemists and Alliterators after a fire broke out and gutted the Academy’s top two floors earlier this week. No one was killed, but three were injured with reported third degree burns.

“We were holding a party for Francois to celebrate the occasion of his third cousin’s adopted niece’s 32nd birthday,” said Anatole Coulomb, a third degree Alchemist on the fourth rung of Primality, according to his background sheet. “Either as a mistake, or as a joke, someone miscalculated the amount of powdered charwood in the mixture of the candles that adorned his Rise de veau pie. When he went to blow them out, instead of simply re-igniting, they exploded.”

“It’s a simple mistake really,” Coulomb added. “Happens more often than you’d think. Usually, it just ends with a crispy eyebrow. But someone had been mixing a dissolving agent earlier in the day, and residue had blown onto the nearby drapes. That was the end of that, really. There was no avoiding it.”

The incident has left Nor Eastern officials with no choice but to launch a full scale investigation into the safety practices and zoning regulations pertaining to the academy. The organization is no stranger to such scrutiny.

“Something like this happens every ten years or so,” said Maximillian Voutiste, the regional fire marshal for Oeil de Fleur. “Some young alchemist decides to try and figure out Blackwood, or play a prank, or make a love potion, and before you know it, a city block is leveled. The Academy used to be inside the Capitol building, but we’ve had to move it three times since its founding. Another incident like this, and they’ll have to move outside the city limits. I won’t miss them.”