AN EXPLOSION RIPPED OPEN A WALL IN A Newport News, Virginia, school early Sunday, injuring eight contract workers at the site and leading to a ninth injury in a related traffic accident. The blast took out a 50-ft. section of wall and moved another wall “off its foundation.”
Daily Press / Snider
The work crew was performing roofing work over the holiday weekend when the blast occurred directly under where they were standing shortly before 7 am. The roofers were using propane to melt tar to spread on the roof, but it is too early to determine if that had any bearing on the blast cause. The Newport News Daily Press reports this morning:
When medics arrived, they found eight men with varying degrees of injuries suffered during the explosion. A fire crew that was first on the scene immediately began treating the (injured), said Battalion Chief Steve Pincus with the Newport News Fire Department. At 7:16 a.m., a second alarm was called “because of the explosion, and for mass casualties,” Pincus said.
“There was a small amount of fire in the roof area when they first arrived, but their most important task is life safety, so a second alarm was called and subsequent apparatus and firefighters began attacking the fire.”
Initially, four of the victims were transported to Riverside Regional Medical Center, three to Sentara Hampton CarePlex and one to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital for burns and other injuries, said Lou Thurston, a Newport News police spokesman. All were taken by ground ambulance and all but one were placed on advanced life support. Two of the victims originally taken to Riverside were later flown by helicopter to Sentara Norfolk General and two were flown to the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond, Thurston said.
Read the full report in the Daily Press HERE.
WAVY-TV has a video report from the scene:
An ambulance that was responding on the 2nd-alarm was involved in an accident when a 75-yr.-old man drove his car into the path of the ambulance and was injured from the crash. Police say that the ambulance, that was responding with lights and siren, had the green light at the controlled intersection.
The ambulance struck the driver’s side door and the man had to be extricated. He is in fair condition at the hospital. The two medics were evaluated at the ER and were back on duty by 10 am.
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