Irvine teen breaks silence after at-home science lab sparks FBI hazmat investigation
By Bianca Buono
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IRVINE, Calif. (KABC) — An Irvine teen whose at-home science lab led to a weeklong FBI hazardous materials investigation is speaking out.
Amalvin Fritz, 17, has had a passion for science from a young age, participating in academic pentathlon, California’s GATE program for gifted and high-achieving students, and skipping high school. After starting his freshman year of college at age 14, he is now months away from earning his degree from UC Irvine.
Fritz is studying biological sciences and created a lab in the garage of his family’s home within the Altair community. He conducts experiments and is studying reactions that are common in the medical field, particularly when developing cures for diseases. For the past year and a half, he has featured some of his work on his YouTube channel.
He believes the investigation is a big misunderstanding.
“I believe they had a little bit of concern as this is not something that you usually see inside a home, because not a lot of people are very passionate about science, and that’s something I hope to change,” Fritz said.
The incident began last Monday when a maintenance worker responded to a leak inside Fritz’s family home. It was unrelated to his garage setup; however, his lab caught the worker’s attention. The worker notified the landlord, who called authorities.
The Irvine Police Department and Orange County Fire Authority initially responded to the report of “suspicious circumstances,” and stated that items needed further investigation. The FBI’s hazmat team and the California National Guard’s 9th Civil Support Team — which handles weapons of mass destruction — were brought in.
Fritz and his family stayed in a hotel for a week while the investigation unfolded. Crews were seen going in and out of his home wearing full hazmat suits.
“It was a small chemistry setup. I wouldn’t describe it as anything more complex than a sixth-grade science lab,” Fritz said.
Fritz said there was not an active experiment happening when the maintenance worker was there, but some of the items he has been working with are cyclooctatetraene, Epsom salt and acetone. He said he buys everything from local hardware stores, Amazon or eBay, and has the proper personal protective equipment needed to conduct his experiments.
“I’m really interested in a field of chemistry known as non-planar systems chemistry,” Fritz said. “I hope that it can bring a cure and a treatment for many diseases in the future.”
James Conway is a former FBI agent. He noted that store-bought chemicals and supplies can be used to create dangerous materials, so he was not surprised to learn that investigators took Fritz’s phone.
“Obviously, there has been different types of evidentiary material that’s being examined,” Conway said. “They will fully scrub everything related to that to make sure that there’s nothing nefarious here.”
Fritz said he and his family support law enforcement. They believe, however, the investigation has gone on long enough and were hoping to return to their home on Tuesday night.
Fritz said amid the chaos, he received a call from a Google employee who shared that something very similar happened to them when they were growing up.
He hopes that by speaking out and continuing to share experiments on his YouTube page, he will inspire more young people to pursue science
“I’m really interested in pursuing medical school and really being the nexus and bringing together so many fields that are related to medicine and bringing it to the clinic,” Fritz said. “I think, even though the situation, I have been a little bit bummed out, I feel like the outpour from the community has been so positive.”
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