Kesmarc hyperbaric chamber fire

[JacquelineNicole]

[QUOTE=RAyers;6139051]
I suggest you do a search on reactive materials. I am more than an expert in this field. Aluminum is used as a fuel in high energy explosives. When in a 100% oxygen atmosphere aluminum will burn very nicely. This is why you can cut steel an aluminum with only an oxygen jet.

The Al2O3 layer you speak of is highly porous, allowing molecular oxygen to reach pure metal. This is why your trailer gets that dull sheen (white powder) even if you leave it alone.

The only reason it does not ignite is that air is only 20% oxygen. However, if you make the aluminum into a nice powder it will spontaneously burn. See metal fires accidents.[/QUOTE]

Correct me if I’m wrong, I know I’m not a rocket scientist here, but aren’t the common oxygen tanks used in hospitals made from aluminum and the outside brushed with steel?

The more important issue on this thread though is not about your issue with aluminum. It’s the fact that corners were cut around an unpredictable animal. Maybe it didn’t receive a sedative bc it needed to compete (I would like to think this untrue coming from the O’Connors who ten to put a high priority on the well being of the animal). Maybe it’s shoes weren’t pulled bc it was in training. The fact is though that even though these things are a pain in the arse, rules an precautions are always there for a reason. This is a sad example of how dangerous working with animals can be and why it’s important to not cut corners.

[RAyers]

Again, common “oxygen” tanks are at MOST 30% oxygen (medical grade oxygen). This is in sufficient to react. Remember, HBOT is in 100% oxygen. Read about the Apollo 1 accident.

The reality is that any metal should be removed or rendered inert if used in a HBO. The smart thing is to always remove the shoes.

[Coanteen]

[QUOTE=bugsynskeeter;6139050]
I agree that it may be a change in protocol re: shod horses. If no shod horses are allowed, it will greatly reduce HBOT use for horses in training.[/QUOTE]

That’s possible (and really, if they’re using HBOT for, say, reducing inflammation the horse shouldn’t be in active training anyways, but that’s a larger issue of using HBOT for scientifically unsupported and often nonsensical indications).

I suppose it’s also possible that an unshod horse could’ve kicked some structure within the chamber itself hard enough to cause a spark when that structure was damaged. There certainly are enough protruding parts that could be damaged with a powerful enough kick.

When we treat emergent human patients, patients with arterial gas emboli where minutes literally mean brain saved, we still take the time to transfer them to hyperbaric-approved stretchers, change their normal hospital blankets for 100% cotton ones, and cover every single thing they may be attached to that can’t be disconnected for the session with a “balloon” that gets filled with 100% nitrogen, just in the unlikely case that said hospital equipment may cause some kind of spark/static electricity discharge/whatever. These are rushing-around emergency human patients, and the time is still taken for each and every safety precaution. It is just that important.

I’m sorry, but this isn’t a case of “OMG sad tragic accident, but nobody’s responsible”. Anyone who’s familiar with hyperbaric chamber operations knows that a dysfunction that causes unwanted pressure changes in either direction (what some of the early reports or users here stated) may cause discomfort, bends, pneumothorax - but NOT an explosion or fire. Whoever made the decision that an un-sedated shod horse could go into that chamber is responsible, because that decision made it a matter of when, not if, such an accident would happen.

[CVPeg]

Link to British newspaper article

http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/Hartpury-College-student-dies-freak-explosion/story-15214069-detail/story.html

Erica Marshall from Medford NJ, studied and met her husband in England. They were recently married. Story included photos.

"NEWLYWED former Hartpury College student Erica Marshall has died in a freak explosion in Florida.

The former Fountain Inn barmaid, who would have been 29 today, was working at the Kentucky Equine Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation Centre, near Ocala, on Friday when the incident happened.

A horse from Virginia was being treated in a pressurised hyperbaric chamber when it became agitated and kicked through a quarter-of-an inch protective coat in the chamber. It is believed its horseshoe created a spark which caused the explosion.

Erica’s husband Kieran Marshall, from Corsham, Wiltshire, who she met at Hartpury College and married in November, gave a heartfelt tribute to The Citizen.

Describing her as his “best friend”, he said: "Erica was such a kind and generous woman.

“She only cared about other people and wouldn’t want all this fuss but that was Erica, she was selfless.”

He spoke of her love for Gloucester and how the pair had hoped to one day return to the county.

“She loved Gloucester and always dreamed of one day coming back. Her mother Ann and father Rich are devastated and I know they appreciate everyone’s wishes.”

Erica, from Medford, New Jersey, and another member of staff were watching the flailing horse via a video link from another room in the facility and tried to de-compress the oxygen chamber using an emergency switch, but were too late."

[Ghazzu]

@bugsynskeeter;6139050

I agree that it may be a change in protocol re: shod horses. If no shod horses are allowed, it will greatly reduce HBOT use for horses in training.

I suspect the main consequence of that would be a significant decrease in the income generated by the chambers.

[ChelseaR]

It surprises me that there is frequent use of what amounts to a dangerous piece of medical equipment with very specific indications for use for horses that are healthy enough to be in training.

I’m not saying barometric oxygen chambers shouldn’t be used with horses but using it for minor issues where there is no proof of it actually being effective is in my opinion kind of crazy.

Also more oxygen does always equal better health. I wonder if any studies on oxygen toxicity in horses have been done. Since the horse isn’t wearing a hood for air breaks and treatment sessions can be for more than an hour multiple times a week I would think that that might be a factor.

[JackieBlue]

Any updates on how Sorcha Moneley is doing?

[Meadow36]

Only a 1/4 of an inch protective coating; is that correct? Doesn’t that sound really thin? I would think that these things should be covered from floor to ceiling in thick padding or rubber mats. Like an anesthesia recovery stall.

Hopefully new protocols and safety procedures will be set for hyperbaric chambers so that something like this will never happen again.

[DMK]

@Ghazzu;6139044

Regardless of whether it is currently common practice to allow shod horses in a hyperbaric chamber, my guess is that, going forward, it will not be the case.

I’m frankly surprised it was ever allowed, even with elastikon.

Is this a recent development, because I could swear that when the early hyperbaric treatments were done on Cat’s Don’t Dance and Wild Eyed and Wicked, that pulling the shoes was required? I’m pretty sure those early HOT chambers were not rooms like at KESMARC, but I confess… first thing I thought when I heard about the explosion + shoes was exactly how large was the facility’s liability policy. Because it seemed utterly ridiculous to keep the shoes on in a high oxygen environment.

However, like you said, if it was common practice before, I can bet someone’s liability policy premiums that it will be required in the future.

[SanJacMonument]

Is it typical to mix compressed oxygen and spark inducing shod horses? Is that the norm? Your emergency switch-off would have to be faster than that; less hand-eye-sight coordination. Think about it! Good grief!

[SanJacMonument]

It sounds like a bomb recipe to me…it’s the same recipe…who mixes the two? If this is a typical and unregulated practice, it needs to be regulated and fast!

[Tamara_in_TN]

[QUOTE=DMK;6139937]

However, like you said, if it was common practice before, I can bet someone’s liability policy premiums that it will be required in the future.[/QUOTE]

they was the only comment Himself made “Well there goes the insurance rates on the stupid things”

Tamara

[SanJacMonument]

A relative of mine cannot even have a small oxygen tank in her house with a smoking relative. That’s just a tank of medical oxygen in the same house, with a mask attached. I cannot imagine the lax protocols allowed if a horse that is shod and without attendant or drugs…is this allowed in other equine rehab facilities in the US?

The companies that supply medical grade oxygen are a handful in number and could easily help in identifying explosion risks to the owners/operators of such facilities.

This was tragic but very preventable in my opinion.

[RAyers]

See, this is where human vs animal systems fail. In human systems, internal fire suppression is REQUIRED. Of course animal owners would scream that it spooked Fluffy if it went off. Along with SanJacMonument, many of the automated systems have required response times independent of human interaction.

This is not to say human systems are infallible, but we have the experience of a person waking up in a chamber and lighting cigarette (the person was not inspected prior to treatment) and going boom.

[SanJacMonument]

Well, I just read an MSDS, (material safety data sheet), for Medical grade oxygen, and I won’t post it here because I don’t know what supplier provided the oxygen, but I’m quite certain, there was an error in the way this was distributed to the animal and the safety compromised to the attendants.

Please read and adhear to MSDSs people!!

[Highflyer]

Just out of curiosity, would the aluminum shoes worn by racehorses spark? I thought aluminum was non-sparking, but I could be wrong.

[RAyers]

[QUOTE=Highflyer;6140401]
Just out of curiosity, would the aluminum shoes worn by racehorses spark? I thought aluminum was non-sparking, but I could be wrong.[/QUOTE]

Take a grinding wheel to a set of Al shoes and what do you see? It is not the silicon carbide that is lighting up.

[MistyBlue]

Such a tragedy. :no:

I’m surprised they’d put any shod horse in one of these without sliding a pair of boots over the shoes for safety’s sake. They wouldn’t have to remove shoes, just add a thick rubber boots over them.

[Coanteen]

[QUOTE=RAyers;6140045]
See, this is where human vs animal systems fail. In human systems, internal fire suppression is REQUIRED. Of course animal owners would scream that it spooked Fluffy if it went off. Along with SanJacMonument, many of the automated systems have required response times independent of human interaction.

This is not to say human systems are infallible, but we have the experience of a person waking up in a chamber and lighting cigarette (the person was not inspected prior to treatment) and going boom.[/QUOTE]

Nope.
Human multiplace chambers, pressurized with air and equipped with BIBS (built-in breathing system, the mask or head tent through which the pure O2 is actually delivered) are required to be equipped with two separate fire suppression systems.

Human monoplace chambers, designed for only one person and pressurized with 100% O2 (patient just breathes the atmosphere inside the chamber, not O2 through a mask/head tent) are specifically not required to have any sort of fire suppression system for the simple reason that in such a small environment filled with 100% O2, no fire suppression system could work in time.

The equine chambers are bigger, multiplace-chamber in size, but unless the horse is wearing a head tent they are pressurized with 100% O2. I suppose the efficacy of fire suppression would have to be tested in chambers like that. In this incident there was a spark causing an explosion; fire suppression would be ineffective to prevent that.

[Grataan]

@JacquelineNicole;6139067

Correct me if I’m wrong, I know I’m not a rocket scientist here, but aren’t the common oxygen tanks used in hospitals made from aluminum and the outside brushed with steel?

You may want to know that Reed is actually a rocket scientist. He has a PhD and is a professor in metals and metallurgical engineering.