The downtown Pioneers Museum was evacuated and part of Tejon Street was shut down for several hours Thursday afternoon after a potentially explosive acid was found in an old Boy Scout first aid kit.

Picric acid was found in the first aid kit around 2 p.m., prompting police to evacuate about 50 people while the police bomb squad and Colorado Springs Fire Department determined what the hazardous material was and removed it from the building at 215 S. Tejon St.

The street was reopened about 4:15, but the museum normally closes by then and did not reopen to visitors.

Historians at the museum were checking out the old medical kit because of a similar discovery last week by the Colorado Historical Society in Denver and another in Dallas a few days ago

Crystallized picric acid was found inside a doctor’s bag from the 1930s stored in a warehouse owned by the society on May 25, 7News in Denver reported. The society had been collecting items in the warehouse while waiting to open its new museum next year, the station reported.

When museum workers checked on the first aid kit at the Pioneers Museum on Thursday, they found the acid in a gauze packet.

The first aid kit was donated to the museum in 2004, but dated back to the 1930s, said Matt Mayberry, with the Pioneers Museum.

A robot with the Police Department’s bomb squad was sent into the museum to remove it.

Picric acid, which once was used to treat burns or skin irritations, is highly corrosive and can be dangerous if mishandled. Dried picric acid can be explosive and has similar properties as TNT.

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