Bad explosion the other night!!

[divinewind_007]

I was working at my county service the other night when the call came. it had been a pretty boring shift..just the normal nursing home shuffle. a few minutes after midnight we went to lay down for the night. i had just got my shoes off when they called us. All the info. our dispatcher had was the address...and explosion of some sort...and 2 patients. We get a chopper put on standby on the way to the scene. Then we got there and saw our patients...and the pucker factor kicked in. Luckily our second truck was a few minutes behind us. patient number 1 was 26 year old with 60% of body burned, 2nd degree and 3 degree burns. patient number 2 was 40 year old and had 80-90% of body burnt...2nd and 3rd degree burns.

It looked like a horror movie. Their skin was melting like plastic. It is the worst burn call i have ever been on. They were in a cabin behind their house trying to resart the fire in their stove. The poured diesel on it. It didnt ignite at first and they started to do it again and it exploded. What they were doing in the cabin at midnight is under investigation. It is susspected they had a meth lab in their too. I do believe that they poured diesel on a fire. What few pieces of clothes that were left were soaked in it. The back of my truck had the smell of burnt flesh and diesel fuel. Patient number 2 must have been in the direct line of the blast cause his injurys were worst then his friend. His throat was black. He got RSI'ed, plus 2 large bore iv's running fluids. His friend got the large bores along with some demerol as well as phentol. And then we flew them out to the nearest burn center. I hope i never have to work one of these again but the way these meth labs are popping up i'm sure to see more. Moral of the story....dont put flammable liquids in your stove.

BTW, patient number 2 was celebrating his 40th birthday when he blew himself up.

[Ridryder 911]

Wow.. heck of a birthday party. when blows out the candles ..he really means it !.. Burns sucks... I used to be a burn nurse, it tis a horrible situation, and wil scar forever (if they don't die due to complications)..

R/R 911

[xselerate]

(if they don't die due to complications)

It sounds like the second guy definitly will. I can't imangine him surviving. The first guy sounds like a long shot but he's got a better chance. Either way it's a rough situation.

I don't know what's available to you devine but here in NYC we have a counseling unit for EMTs / Paramedics. If the job upset you excessivly you should talk to someone about it. Either way... it sounds like you did a great job.

[als_medic_uk]

Burns are the time IO's are needed, IV's are really hard, unless you remove top layer of skin, plus you need to do the escharotomy [for neck burns]. Such a terrible event is a serve burn.

Regards.

[Medic2588]

If it was suspected to be a meth lab, were they decontaminated first?

Devin

[divinewind_007]

oh im fine xselerate. we have the counseling down here if we need it. and as far as not using the IOs, his arms from about wrist to shoulder were not burnt....so we got lines in the AC. and know they werent decontaminated cause the people on the scene didnt think of it till afterwards. the cops and fireman that got their first never thought of it. on the way to the scene we heard one of the cops get on the radio. he was extremely excited and he said: I dont know if i have the authority or not, but please launch the bird. we knew then it was going to be a rough one. and our hazmat team is a joke. they have never even done any training. we'll just have to wait and see if it was or not.

[Just Plain Ruff]

Your haz mat team cannot be any worse than one of my previous jobs Emergency Management leader He rolled up on a rollover of a chemical trailer. It was leaking. He drove up and parked about 20 feet from the leak. He's lucky it was just CO2 and not ammonia or something of that nature.

I had another safety officer at a facility I worked at who cut his finger off in a table saw accident.

Safety Safety Safety

[Medic2588]

Easy enough for me to be an armchair quarterback, so I won't knock ya for what might have been. Just remember for the future, SAFETY! If its a suspected meth lab is a hazmat. There are some nasty chemicals that go into making meth, and even nastier chemicals that go into booby traps to protect the meth labs. And if you feel your hazmat team is a joke, you need to stop laughing and take charge and demand they decontaminate. If they disagree, call in another fire company. That usually gets them mad enough to listen. Just some pearls of wisdom for next time.

Devin

[Just Plain Ruff]

medic Easier said than done. What if they are the only fire team in the area?

Case in point, had a wreck on the county line of my county and another. it was just outside the city limits of windsor mo. The Windsor FD had nothing in terms of extrication equipment. We needed to get a critical patient out of the car before he coded. No way to get him out with out cutting him out. he was cocooned. We requested windsor call another fire service with the equipment we needed. They refused said this was their incident. I finally called the Sedalia fire department on my cell phone and they responded since it was half in their county and half in ours. Finally they rolled up and went to work. Got him out. There were major repurcussions over my calling via cell phone to get this kid out. So sometimes its not that easy to call another company.

Plus I believe that the thought of a meth lab was one made after the incident was completed.

[divinewind_007]

well..heres the scene. there was 3 cops...20 bystanders and a fire crew. the cabin was down the hill about 100 yds from where they had the patients. they had already brought them up from the cabin.fire crew was a volunteer dept. Hasmat team is all volunteers from all over the county. they would have to be called in.probably take 45mins to a hour to get them assembled and out there. then they would have to get set up. all fire crews around here are volunteer except for the city fire dept. which is a combination. even they only keep one fire man on duty at a time. the scene was basically a mess. we had wifes and mothers screaming and yelling for their loved ones and going nuts over the whole incident. we got the patients in our trucks. locked the doors cause the cops at first couldnt get the family from trying to get in the truck to see their loved ones. we treated them and got them out of their as fast as we could. frankly, by the time the hasmat team got there i think the most critical patient would have definetely been dead. and the other one would have been lucky to survive. should it have been deconed yes it should have, but we really lack the resources to succesfully decon a area and be able to save the lives of the people in it too. unfortunately our county oficaials aint going to spend the money to protect this county and its people. we took a risk, but hopefully these men will live and change their lives around. It was confirmed today that it was a meth lab. what your saying is right i just wanted you to know why we did what we did. 8)