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Man Injured After Explosion Inside Garbage Truck
January 25, 2012
A man was injured after an explosion Tuesday afternoon inside a garbage truck in the 4500 block of Chumuckla Highway.
When Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s deputies arrived, they found that a Waste Pro employee was on the ground after having been thrown about 10 feet by the explosion. The employee was transported to Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola with minor injuries.
The Pace Fire Department, State Fire Marshal, ATF and the State Fire Marshal’s Office Bomb Squad responded to evaluate the situation, shutting down Chumuckla Highway for about two and half hours. The truck was then escorted to the county’s landfill in Bagdad where the contents were dumped in a controlled environment.
Investigators determined that an initial explosion was caused by a discarded home health care oxygen cylinder. When the trash was compacted in the truck, the cylinder had exploded and ignited the surrounding trash. A secondary explosion was caused from an aerosol can.
The State Fire Marshal’s Office is working to trace the serial numbers on the oxygen container to determine ownership, according to the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office.
“All agencies involved want to stress the severe danger that it causes when people improperly and illegally dispose of hazardous or flammable materials in a trash bin. These items need to be disposed of properly by returning them to a hazardous materials collection site or a medical facility that will accept the empty cylinders,” according to a statement released by the Sheriff’s Office.
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3 Responses to “Man Injured After Explosion Inside Garbage Truck”
The State Fire Marshal’s Office is working to trace the serial numbers on the oxygen container to determine ownership, according to the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office
Hope they find out who did this.
When I saw the photo of the cylinder the first thing I thought of was my 84 year old invalid father-in-law being cared for by his 84 year old wife who is now showing signs of dementia. Not to much of a reach to see the bottle being thrown away by accident in a case like that. I am suprised that something like this does not happen more often when you consider the number of disposable propane cylinders that are tossed away each year.
Try to think before you put things in the trash that be be combustable or when combined may be hazardous. If you have to dispose of bleach , Ajax, cleaning fluids, try to find a hazardous waste disposal.