Burn Injury Resource Center

In Vestavia Hills, Alabama this week, a six-year-old girl suffered second degree burns and third degree burns when she came in contact with an electrical transformer that powered the lighting at a large athletic complex.

The girl was at the athletic complex to watch her older brother play soccer. But she wandered away from the field and towards a wooden fence that separated the spectator areas from the electrical transformer. But because there were two planks missing from the wooden fence, the girl was able to wiggle through the fence and got too close to the transformer. After suffering a severe electrical shock, the girl was treated by a doctor who happened to be at the complex. She was then flown by Life Saver helicopter to Children's of Alabama Hospital. The girl was listed in fair condition a day after the incident.

The Vestavia Hills Mayor acknowledged that there were planks missing from the fence. The incident is under investigation, and it is possible that the family of girl could file a lawsuit claiming that the injuries the girl suffered were a result of negligence on the part of the city, which oversees the operation of the athletic complex.

If you or someone you know suffers an injury such as third degree burns or smoke inhalation, you should call Kramer & Pollack LLP in Mineola, New York so that the personal injury attorneys in that firm can determine whether another party has legal liability for injuries suffered, and if the injured party has a strong legal case.

In Coachella, CA this week, a driver suffered severe burns when propane tanks in the back of his pickup truck exploded while he waited with his family in a drive-through at a McDonald's restaurant.

It was about 1:45 p.m. on a Saturday when the man heard a hissing noise coming from one of two tanks. When he stepped into the back of his pickup to check on the leaking tank, he created static electricity that ignited the leaking gas and caused a gas explosion in both tanks.

The blast had so much force that it caused the roof of the truck to buckle and the tailgate to blow off, striking a vehicle behind it. The fire engulfed the truck, scorched part of the drive-through, and damaged the roof of the restaurant

The patrons of the restaurant were evacuated during the incident. The family in the truck was transported to a local area hospital after suffering from second degree burns, which were not life-threatening.

With summer coming up, there is a good lesson to be learned from this story. Propane tanks that are used for outdoor barbecues and grills can be dangerous if they are too old, if they are not filled up in a safe manner, or if they are not handled properly and gently. Severe burns can result from the rupture of even a small propane gas tank.

If you or someone you know suffers an injury such as third degree burns or smoke inhalation, you should call Kramer & Pollack LLP in Mineola, New York so that the personal injury attorneys in that firm can determine whether another party has legal liability for injuries suffered, and if the injured party has a strong legal case.

In Pike Township, Ohio, last week, firefighters from dozens of departments needed six hours to get control of a massive fire at an oil company. The damage from the fire, smoke, and hazardous materials that leaked will require an extensive environmental cleanup in the area.

More than 50 agencies responded to the workplace fire. The blaze produced flames that shot 200 feet into the air, and black smoke could be seen several counties away. The clouds of smoke could even be seen on weather radar. The oil company supplies diesel fuel, heating oil, gasoline, racing fuel, bio-diesels and lubricants.

Ohio Environmental Protection Agency officials at the scene determined that oil spilled into a tributary of Donnels Creek, which feeds into Mad River. Officials used vacuum equipment and other techniques to remove environmental contaminants. "We pushed hard to protect the environment," said a local fire chief. "We should have things back to normal in a couple days."

Public and private hazardous materials teams contained petroleum-based contaminants to no more than a quarter mile downstream, said another fire chief who is a member of the county's hazardous materials team.

Firefighters ramped up the use of water and foam to quench the flames after the fire spread throughout the entire facility. One firefighter was treated for a minor leg injury, and all 15 employees at the company's plant were accounted for. Homes in the surrounding area had minimal to no damage.

The fire started about 11 a.m. as the oil company's crews loaded a tanker truck. The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but fire officials believe it ignited while workers transferred a fluid from one tank to another. It was not immediately known what type of fluid was being transferred.

After about 45 minutes, firefighters ordered first responders and company employees to get back as the blaze spread. Electric transformers exploded and electric lines fell on the scene a short time later, forcing firefighters back even more. And as the fire spread, the building began to collapse.

Before the fire spread, oil company employees were able to salvage all computer servers and some files. But once the flames began advancing and the possibility of severe burns and smoke inhalation became higher, people were told to evacuate.

At the time of the fire, the company said it only had lubricants at the site. However, a fire chief said the fire involved several petroleum products and fuel oil, including 55 gallon drums of petroleum product. There might be legal liability on the part of the company if any employees or local residents were injured in this incident, or afterwards as a result of environmental contamination.

Some oil was found in the stream near the facility. One official said that this tributary was "running orange-red." Veolia Environmental Services of Dayton, Ohio had booms in the tributary to try to stop the flow of the oil.

Michelle Simmons, environmental manager for the Dayton Water Department, said her department recommended that the Mad River intakes be closed overnight as a precaution, even though the Ohio EPA does not expect any impact to the Mad River surface water from runoff. Any possible runoff will have passed the water supply intakes by morning, she said.

The city of Springfield's water well taps an aquifer along Mad River. It also has a ridge line along it, creating almost a confined pond that provides more protection. Fortunately, "we are upstream of their problem," said one city official.

Runoff of contaminated surface water is a common concern in fighting fires near hazardous materials. "When you knock down a fire of any size, you're going to have the water you use picking up contaminants," said one fire chief.

The Ohio EPA likely will monitor the stream and other water sources for the foreseeable future. Residents near the fire have well water, and several horse farms in the area rely on the stream, so they need to monitor the quality of their water.

This chemical fire posed numerous risks. One fire chief said that firefighters have to be aware of numerous risks when fighting a fire of this magnitude. The chemicals can seep into the clothes and skin of first responders, contaminate the air, and when mixed with water can create a slurry that will create an environmental hazard as it seeps into streams and waterways. Some surrounding homes were evacuated and people with farm animals had been advised to keep them away.

Having enough water to keep flames under control was a challenge. Without hydrants, fire crews trucked water into the site, including from schools and a local water tower. Firefighters used 5,000 to 6,000 gallons of water a minute, said a fire chief.

Firefighters handling the blaze went to Springfield's distribution district and filled up tankers with water from the city's hydrants. As crews worked to keep a steady supply of water on hand, officials remained concerned about the potential for explosions. There were many large explosions during the first several hours of the fire -- a large boom followed by a ball of flame and a heat wave that spread across the area. Soot and ash rained down cross the scene, raising the possibility of dangerous smoke inhalation.

The Clark County Sheriff's Office advised people in the immediate area to close their windows and turn off air conditioning. The advisory was issued about 1 p.m. and lifted about 6 p.m.

Clark County Health Commissioner Charles Patterson said his agency worked closely with incident commanders on the scene, as well as the Regional Air Pollution Control Agency. Brian Huxtable, of the Regional Air Pollution Control Agency, advised people to avoid the smoke if possible but said as far as he knows, it's not a serious inhalation hazard if people stay far enough away. "It may cause coughing... Just try to avoid going outside in it." People with prior breathing problems like asthma would probably be affected most, he said.

The two air pollution monitors in Clark County picked up any smoke by mid-afternoon, probably due to their placement in relation to the smoke plume. Officials closed ventilation systems at local schools anyway.

Kelly Phares lives across from the scene of the fire, and said that "I heard some pops and literally my house shook," she said. "I'm concerned that something flammable could fly over, but we don't have any trees or anything (that would catch fire)." She said black debris from the fire is in her yard.

"I just happened to look outside and I thought it was getting cloudy," she said. "But then I saw (the fire) before the fire trucks got here. It's pretty scary."

If you or someone you know suffers an injury such as third degree burns or smoke inhalation, you should call Kramer & Pollack LLP in Mineola, New York so that the personal injury attorneys in that firm can determine whether another party has legal liability for injuries suffered, and if the injured party has a strong legal case.

Earlier this year, a man in Portage, Indiana, was placed into an induced coma after an industrial accident at the steel mill where he worked left him with third degree burns over 55 percent of his body.

The accident happened one evening at the ArcelorMittal Burns Harbor plant, when a high-pressure steam hose ruptured from where it was connected to an oxygen furnace. Gabe Rocha, a salaried foreman who transferred from the firm's Inland Steel plant to the Burns Harbor facility about six months ago, was checking pressure lines that are part of the cooling system when the hose ruptured.

At the time of the accident, workers were investigating an alert that a steam pressure line had stopped working properly. While Rocha was looking into the situation, the hose ruptured with such force that it threw him about 200 feet, dousing him with steam.

Rocha, who is in his 50s, was airlifted to the burn center at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, where he was placed in the coma. Rocha is expected to be in the medically induced coma for about a month, he added. "His hands, neck, back and legs suffered severe burns," said a union spokesman. Fortunately, he was initially listed in stable condition.

The plant workers' union and the steelmaking firm have launched a joint union-management investigation into the accident to determine the exact cause, and determine if the incident could have been prevented. "We want to make sure this doesn't happen again," said the union spokesperson.

If you or someone you know suffers an injury such as third degree burns or smoke inhalation, you should call Kramer & Pollack LLP in Mineola, New York so that the personal injury attorneys in that firm can determine whether another party has legal liability for injuries suffered, and if the injured party has a strong legal case.

In late December, the wife of an industrial worker who suffered fatal third degree burns when a steel ladle erupted and spewed molten steel on him, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against her husband's employer and the manufacturers of the ladle.

Roxanne Moyer, individually and on behalf of her deceased husband, Samuel N. Moyer, filed suit against Siemens Vai Services et als, Signal Metal Industries Inc., Danieli Corp., North American Refractories Co. and Black Diamond Capital Management on December 30, 2011 in federal court in New Orleans, LA.

The incident occurred on February 1, 2011 while Samuel Moyer was working as a furnace second helper in the ArcelorMittal Laplace steel manufacturing mill. During the course of his regular job duties, a steel ladle erupted and spewed molten steel, which came into contact with Moyer. Two days later, he died from third degree burns he suffered during the incident.

Moyer's wife contends that the defendants are liable because the steel ladle, ladle transfer car, ladle stir plugs and nest block assembly were all unreasonably dangerous in design, construction, composition, and lack of warnings, and also because the products did not conform to an express warranty of the manufacturer.

The plaintiff is asking the court for an award of survival action damages for conscious physical pain and suffering and mental pain and suffering, medical and funeral expenses and wrongful death damages for loss of love, affection, services, and support, as well as infliction of grief, plus interest and court costs. A jury trial was requested.

If you or someone you know suffers an injury such as third degree burns or smoke inhalation, you should call Kramer & Pollack LLP in Mineola, New York so that the personal injury attorneys in that firm can determine whether another party has legal liability for injury suffered, and if the injured party has a strong legal case.

In Maple Grove, Minnesota, a 15-year-old boy is spending a few days in a burn unit at Hennepin County Medical Center after a flash explosion in a science class that burned him and three other Maple Grove Junior High School students. The three others were treated and released, but the boy, Dane Neuberger, is still in the hospital suffering from second-degree burns on his face and neck.

Neuberger said he was simply taking notes in class when suddenly, and from seemingly out of nowhere, he was on fire. Neuberger was sitting in the front row of class when his teacher asked the ninth-graders to turn their desks toward a lab table while he conducted experiments. They were learning about the flammable substance methanol. But the flame that was supposed to stay in the bottle and consume the methanol did not do so, the container exploded.

The flame from the container came in contact with some spilled methanol that was left on a lab table, which caught fire. This is the fire that hit Neuberger in the face, neck and hand. It also caught his shirt, which he ripped off while the teacher rushed to help him.

"I was on fire. The teacher wrapped me with a fireproof blanket," he recalled. "People were screaming and just ran out." another student said that "I saw a kid running down the hallway, he was burned, black, with no shirt, running and screaming."

Neuberger remembers that, "Immediately afterwards, I was in shock, so I didn't feel much. But when I was sitting in the nurse's office, the pain became unbearable-- it felt like I didn't have my lips."

Dr. Ryan Fey, a surgeon at HCMC's Burn Unit, affirmed the severity of Neuberger's wounds: "Burns like these are quite painful." But he offered some hope in saying that these burns may be able to heal without skin grafts and possibly without permanent burn scars. "If the wounds heal in about 10 days, then we'll know," Fey said. "Right now, we think the risk [of long-term scarring] is pretty minimal."

Both the school district and state fire marshal are investigating the incident, to determine the exact cause and whether the teacher committed negligence in fire safety precautions.

Another accidental flash fire took place recently in Crestview, Florida. There, a woman was undergoing minor surgery at a medical center to remove cysts from her head when a blaze suddenly erupted in the operating room, leaving the woman with severe burns to her face and neck.

Kim Grice, a 29-year-old mother of three from Holt, Florida, was unconscious during the incident, which was fortunate. She was immediately flown to a hospital with a burn center in Alabama. It was not clear what caused the flash fire. The woman's mother said that "Kim said to me, 'They woke me up and everyone around me was hysterical. I don't know what happened to me.'"

Perhaps because there will be an investigation into possible doctor negligence or nurse negligence in the operating room, or possible liability for a medical device maker that was in the operating room, "the doctors and the hospital are not telling us what happened," said the woman's uncle. "They did say they had never seen anything like it before, and they are terribly sorry that it happened."

A statement from the facility, the North Okaloosa Medical Center, read: "The hospital deeply regrets today's event in which a patient sustained burns during a procedure in our ambulatory surgery center. The staff took immediate steps to respond, including moving the patient to the hospital's emergency department. . .We are conducting a thorough review to fully understand what happened in a deliberate effort to prevent such an event from occurring again."

If you or someone you know does suffer a severe burn injury or a smoke inhalation injury, you should call Kramer & Pollack LLP in Mineola, New York so that the personal injury attorneys in that firm can determine whether another party has legal liability for injury suffered, and if the injured party has a solid legal case.

According to a recent article in the Bismarck Tribune in North Dakota, a lawsuit seeking compensation for pain, medical expense and loss of income was filed in Northwest District Court in Williston, ND against seven companies on behalf of three men who sustained second degree burns and third degree burns when an oil rig exploded in late July.

The workers, all from North Dakota, were bringing up drilling pipe on a rig for their employer, Cyclone Drilling Inc. when gas escaped the well, causing an explosion and fire. Andrew Rohr, 53, and Timothy Bergee, 53, were hospitalized for well over a month. The lawsuit says Rohr has burns over 60 percent of his body, also suffered septic shock and now has heart problems. Bergee has burns covering 80 percent of his body, and a compromised immune system has caused life-threatening pneumonia, the suit says. The third worker, Jeff Morton, 39, of Stark County, is being treated on an outpatient basis for significant burns to his arms, said their attorney, Robert Hilliard of Texas.

"These men have all been put through hell. Two of our clients have more than half of their bodies covered with burned flesh. The third has had his arms horribly burned," Hilliard said. "The bottom line is that six different companies failed to protect human lives [in order] to turn a buck."

The suit says the oil rig toppled during the blaze, and oil, gas and debris burned for several days. A specialized well fire control unit was brought in to control the fire.

The lawsuit names Continental Resources Inc., as operator, along with the well's majority owner Pride Energy Inc.; M-I SWACO Inc.; Noble Casing Inc.; Superior Well Services Inc.; Panther Pressure Testers; and Warrior Energy Services Corp.

Hilliard said resolution before trial is possible. In oil-industry cases, "juries all over the country, for injuries much less severe than these, have made awards for over $50 million," he noted.

The suit alleges that Continental Resources and Pride Energy rushed the operation, failed to prepare an adequate well plan, and failed to control down-hole conditions with mud and cement. The suit says Continental and Pride failed to ensure the rig had adequate blowout preventers to protect the workers. The suit also says that M-I SWACO failed to provide mud capable of holding pressure inside the drill hole, and failed to provide a properly trained mud engineer.

In drilling operations, drill mud is injected as counter pressure against gas and volatile compounds as the drill pipe is pulled up.

The suit also alleges that Noble Casing's pipe plan was negligently designed and that both Superior Well Services and Warrior Energy Services Corp. provided negligent cement programs for the well and the pipe used in the rig's drilling processes. The suit also alleges that Panther failed to properly test the well, or notify the drilling contractor that the collars around the pipe weren't completely closing.

The attorney said that Cyclone Drilling is not named in the suit because state law prohibits suing employers, who are covered under Workers Compensation, unless the employee is killed.

The suit seeks compensation for pain, medical expenses, mental anguish, loss of future earning capacity, physical impairment, disfigurement, and in Rohr's case, loss of spousal consortium. No specific dollar amount was named in the suit, and the companies had 20 days to respond.

Continental Resources' spokesman Brian Engel said the company acknowledges the tragic nature of the injuries suffered by the men, but had no comment on the lawsuit. He said that Continental is conducting its own investigation into the explosion and will report to OSHA, the federal health and safety regulator.

Engel noted that the well, which lies below the Bakken formation and is anticipated to be a top producer in this area of North Dakota, is "undergoing remediation."

If you or someone you know does suffer a severe burn injury or a smoke inhalation injury, you should call Kramer & Pollack LLP in Mineola, New York so that the personal injury attorneys in that firm can determine whether another party has legal liability for injuries suffered, and if the injured party has a solid legal case.

Two stories from Missouri in the past two weeks demonstrate just how much people still have to learn about safety on the job site. Carelessness almost resulted in people getting killed in these incidents.

First, in St. Louis, a construction worker was critically injured while working at a building that's undergoing renovation--due to his own carelessness. A captain with the St. Louis Fire Department said that shortly after 9 a.m. on a Friday, a worker apparently used a blow torch to try and open a barrel marked "flammable". Early reports were that the man suffered burns on more than 90 percent of his body. Such severe injures make it unlikely that the man will survive.

And in Olympian Village, Missouri, a few days later, a series of propane explosions rocked a busy part of town and terrified residents, though it appears that nobody was seriously inured--which is a miracle, given the size of the explosions. "There was a huge fireball. My guess is that it went about 300 feet into the air," said one witness. "We heard the rumble from the first explosion, and then we felt the ground shake."

The explosions happened at the intersection of two main roads, at a business called R&R Propane. A delivery truck, parked unattended at a pump at a nearby BP gas station, rolled away and hit R&R's propane-transfer station, puncturing the main tank and causing the first explosion. Witnesses reported at least five more explosions after that.

Fortunately, "I think there was safety equipment on the propane tanks themselves that helped to keep the situation from getting worse," said a local police sergeant. He added that no homes were evacuated, but some major roads had to be closed off.

Another witness said that the scene was unforgettable. "It looked like a miniature sun went up. It was really big."

Even with safety training, some employees make errors in judgment that can result in second degree burns, third degree burns, smoke inhalation, or other injuries not just to themselves, but to people around them. This is fertile ground for a lawsuit on behalf of anyone who is injured because of the employee's mistake.

If you or someone you know suffers a burn injury or a smoke inhalation injury, you should call Kramer & Pollack LLP in Mineola, New York so that the personal injury attorneys in that firm can determine whether another party has legal liability for injuries suffered, and if the injured party has a solid legal case.

According to the report, injury risk factors may include inexperience, a reluctance to ask questions, absence of awareness of their legal rights and others.

When there is a burn injury at the job site, the immediate and proper first aid treatment may decrease the severity of the burn injury. Clean and flush the area with cool water, don't apply ice as it may cause more injury, cover the burn area with a clean dressing then seek medical help.

In restaurants, employers and employees should have easy access to first aid materials and should be trained on how to perform the basic first aid when there is a burn injury.
Among the proven measures to reduce burn injury in work places are frequent cleaning the floor with a grease cutting agent that can help preventing burns from the slip of an employee and getting in contact with a hot grill, coarse quarry tiles for flooring, using mates that are slip resistant and using gloves and handles equipped grill screens, scrapers and bricks can help prevent burns in employees who are working with or cleaning grills.

This information is not intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice; it should not be used during any medical emergency or for the diagnosis or treatment of any medical condition. Call 911 for all medical emergencies.