The Osoyoos Motor Home Park was the scene of a butane blast Friday evening that left a man with serious injuries. (Keith Lacey photo)
A man from Osoyoos was rushed to hospital after suffering serious burns following an explosion inside a shed located behind a trailer in the Osoyoos Motor Home Park on Oleander Drive on Friday evening.
Osoyoos Fire Department Chief Rick Jones said 10 volunteer firefighters and other emergency first responders were called to the motor home park Friday evening around 9:15 p.m. when neighbours reported a loud explosion had taken place.
Jones said the explosion was caused when a butane canister exploded and caused severe burns to a man, who is believed to be in his early 30s.
“It looks like the butane canister exploded inside a small shed located at the back of one of the houses and it blew the back wall off the shed,” said Jones. “The person inside the shed suffered serious burns to his face, head, neck and throat and was rushed to hospital by ambulance crews.”
The butane canister caused a loud explosion and blew one wall in the shed down, but the flames that caused the burns to the man inside the shed didn’t spread, he said.
“This was what is called a flash fire due to an explosion,” he said. “The explosion was severe enough to cause a concussion strong enough to knock down a wall in the shed behind the house, but there wasn’t any spread of the fire once our guys arrived at the scene.”
Firefighters and other emergency personnel remained on the scene for roughly an hour, he said.
Because the man who was rushed to hospital suffered serious second and third-degree burns, Jones believes he would have been transported to hospital in Vancouver, where medical services for burn victims are available.
Jones said he didn’t want to speculate on what might have caused the butane canister to explode.
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
