Articles Posted in Smoke Inhalation Injury

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Just in time for summer, a product warning goes out so that people don’t get severely burned during backyard cookouts.

Here are the details: A jelly-like fuel made for ceramic firepots has been removed from store shelves this week after a pair of explosions severely injured three people in New York.

A 14-year-old Long Island boy nearly burned to death after a bottle of FireGel exploded in his backyard on May 28. Michael Hubbard of Riverhead was still hospitalized in grave condition with third-degree burns over much of his body. And on June 3, a New York City man nearly died and a friend was burned after a similar explosion.

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Unfortunately, in the past few weeks, there have been two terrible incidents where people were killed or suffered third-degree burns because they did not take the time to plan an escape route from a building in the event of a fire. What’s more, they did not have fire extinguishers nearby that could have saved them.

First, in Gettysburg, PA, three men suffered serious burns in a garage fire in late May. William Rexroth, Jerry Shultz and Randy Beck–all are around age 50–were in a garage working on vehicles when a fire broke out, according to Pennsylvania State Police. The garage door was closed, so it was difficult and time-consuming for them to get out, police said. They eventually broke out windows and escaped. All three suffered third-degree burns. Rexroth and Shultz were taken to Lehigh Valley Hospital and Beck was taken to the Johns Hopkins Burn Center.

Any time you are in a work area such as a garage, you must make sure that there is not only a clear escape route but also good air ventilation into the room so that if a fire does break out, you do not get overcome by smoke inhalation within seconds. Also, these men should have had a fire extinguisher nearby, as they were handling flammable liquids that were in and around the vehicles they were working on.

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On May 19, the Fire Smoke Coalition sent out a press release saying that it “applauds the Congressional Fire Services Institute’s (CFSI) National Advisory Council (NAC) passage of A Resolution to Address a New Epidemic: Smoke Inhalation at its April board meeting.” CFSI is a leading non-partisan policy institute designed to educate members of Congress on the needs of our nation’s fire and emergency services.

In its resolution, CFSI notes that there is mounting proof, obtained through atmospheric monitoring on fire grounds throughout the U.S., that hydrogen cyanide (HCN) is a predominant toxicant found in fire smoke. The resolution calls for educating the fire service about the dangers of smoke inhalation–including those of HCN–through support of a national education program, the development of HCN poisoning treatment protocols for all local and state emergency medical services (EMS), and efforts by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to establish a national database of smoke inhalation injuries, medical complications and deaths linked to HCN.

To learn even more about the Fire Smoke Coalition and about HCN poisoning, click on this link.

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On Thursday, May 26 in Belleville, NJ, a fire at the five-story Tudor Arms apartments resulted in the dramatic rescue of a 65-year-old woman, who was overcome by smoke and burns.

Belleville Fire Prevention Specialist Ralph Castellano happened to be near the five-story, 50-unit apartment building around 3:30 p.m. when the fire dispatch received a call from the burning building. Castellano immediately entered the building, and with the aid of Belleville police, alerted and evacuated the tenants.

Castellano encountered heavy smoke on the third floor, and without any protective gear or a breathing mask, made his way to the third-floor apartment where the fire was. He found the woman lying on the floor near the doorway.

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This past Sunday, a tragic fire took place at a home in Columbus, OH. According to The Columbus Dispatch newspaper, Tim Templin and his wife, Sandi, are next-door neighbors to Misty Hodge and Jamie Gillespie. The Templins had long worried about the safety of Hodge and Gillespie and their two children, all of whom lived in the run-down house next to theirs. Unfortunately, their worries came true when a toddler died in a fire there early yesterday, and the little boy’s sister nearly died too.

The poorly kept rental property wasn’t the primary cause of the fire that killed 2-year-old Josh Gillespie and left his 4-year-old sister, Abigail Hodge, clinging to life in Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus. But the blaze, which started in a trash can on the front porch and was most likely caused by a smoldering cigarette, was fueled by the terrible condition of the house. Even worse, the home had no smoke detectors.

When firefighters arrived at 5:08 a.m., the home was engulfed and the two kids’ parents were outside, injured and hysterical. Hodge and Gillespie were awakened by the smell of smoke and went looking for the source. While they were outside investigating, the fire grew worse, spreading so quickly that Gillespie went back into the house but couldn’t get to the kids upstairs.

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Even though barbecues are enclosed units and are used outside, the chance of suffering severe burns from careless use of them is high. The following story is prime evidence of that: According to the Naples Daily News in Florida, a 71-year-old woman was rushed to a Tampa hospital in early May with burns over almost 30 percent of her body after an outdoor grill caused a gas explosion at her home. She was very fortunate, however; by the next day she was recuperating at home.

An emergency call came in around 7 p.m. to the local fire department, and fire engines from the city of Naples Fire/Rescue Department reached the home less than seven minutes later. The responders found the patient seated and covered in wet towels.

A brief fire was caused by the gas explosion, but was out by the time responders arrived. They were able to cut off the gas supply to the grill. The woman was transported as a precaution by ambulance to the Tampa General Hospital Regional Burn Center, with first-degree burns reported on 22 percent of her body, and second-degree burns on five percent of her body, largely to her neck and her face.

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The CBS television station in Keller, Texas reported last week on this story of severe burns on one family’s child and several other children, all of whom are in a special-needs class at their school:

Nicholas Chaney’s parents trusted that he’s taken care of at school just like he is at home. Nicholas, 18, has cerebral palsy. “I admire the teachers they do a very good job with them,” says his mother Pauline Chaney.

But now that trust is shaken. “As I got closer, he smelled like burned hair and burned skin,” says Nicholas’ stepfather, Rudy Moreno. Moreno says that his stepson’s special needs class at Keller High School went outside at the same time other students were using charcoal grills as part of a cooking class.

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In addition to the tragic shopping-mall and nightclub fires I detailed in my last blog entry on April 11, this next story should be a lesson to anyone about thinking of fire safety wherever you are. When at home, you simply must check all possible means of escape on a regular basis to make sure they are free of obstructions and can be opened, in case a fire ever happens.

This story appeared in the Des Moines Register newspaper on April 2:

Sieh and Annie Toffoi were getting ready for bed when the floor in their second-story apartment began burning their feet. No smoke alarms went off in the apartment to alert the couple a fire was raging below, according to a wrongful death lawsuit filed in early April in Polk County, Iowa, District Court.

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On Sunday, a fire broke out in a three-building shopping mall in the downtown area of Xining City in northwest China. According to media reports there one woman died, while another 12 were rescued and treated in the hospital for injuries mainly caused by smoke inhalation.

The local media also reported that nearly 600 firefighters responded, but rescue work was hindered by the raging fire and waves of choking smoke.

Just because this fire happened in a faraway place like China does not mean that we cannot learn something from it. You see, when we are in public buildings, we must at least have an awareness of our surroundings so that if an emergency does take place, we know which way to go that will get us out of the building quickly. Following the herd of people in whichever direction they are going is not necessarily the best idea!

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An article written for the Associated Press this past week covered a topic that every head of a household should know something about: A regulation calling for homes built after January 1, 2011 to install fire sprinklers.

This rule in some areas has ignited a fight around the country between fire safety officials, who say home fire sprinklers save lives, and home builders who are struggling to recover from the real-estate crash. Many of the builders contend that sprinkler installations should be voluntary, meaning it’s up to the home buyer.

The International Code Council, an organization of building inspectors, fire officials and others who set building standards, recommended in 2009 that states and municipalities adopt codes requiring sprinkler systems in homes and town houses less than three stories high. These regulations took effect this past January.

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