Two Georgia Tech students were seriously injured after a chemical explosion that happened behind a fraternity house early Wednesday morning.

Tommy Keen, a sophomore aerospace engineering student from Peachtree City, and Paul Grzybowski, a junior materials science student from Appling are being treated at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta for first- and second-degree burns to their upper bodies, said Georgia Tech spokeswoman Lisa Grovenstein.

According to Grovenstein, the incident happened at the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity house at the intersection of 6th Street and Techwood Drive at approximately 12:30 a.m. According to Michael Parker, an engineering student, the men were reportedly burned as they tried to mix aluminum powder and rust powder in an experiment called “high school basic chemistry.  Parker was at a fraternity house across the street when the accident happened.

Parker stated that the experiment that Keen and Grzybowski were performing can produce a pyrotechnic effect similar to a huge sparkler and the resulting reaction “runs thousands of degrees Celsius, it’s molten iron.”

The accident is still under investigation and the Environmental Health and Safety Team is working closely with the Atlanta Fire Department to determine exactly what materials were used in the incident and how the injuries occurred.