Officials: Horse's metal shoes sparked fatal blast in oxygen chamber
Jenifer Lowe / AP
This photo provided by the Marion County Sheriff's Office, a Marion County Crime Scene investigator photographs the damages caused by an explosion at an equine rehabilitation center in north Florida's horse country that killed a worker and a horse in Ocala, Friday, Feb. 10, 2012.
By msnbc.com staff
An explosion that killed a 28-year-old woman operating a hyperbaric chamber at a Florida equine therapy center was sparked by a horse kicking the side of the chamber with its metal shoes, authorities ruled.
Erica Marshall, an employee at Kesmarc Equine Rehabilitation facility in Marion County, died when the chamber she was running exploded on Feb. 10. Sorcha Moneley, 33, a visiting observer from Ireland, was wounded in the blast.
The sheriff's report said the horse, which also died, was wearing steel horseshoes inside the oxygen-rich chamber. Moneley told fire rescuers the horse kicked the inside walls, removing an inside protective layer and causing sparks before the explosion.
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It wasn't just the horse's shoe that caused the explosion, it was likely the protective layer (foam) that ignited from a spark of the metal on metal...once it did that there was no hope and both women should have run. There was no way to decompress the chamber without it exploding. :(
ReplyDelete~Steph C.