Seven of the nine Los Angeles firefighters who were hurt when a natural-gas-powered semi-truck caught fire and exploded in Wilmington have been released from the hospital, fire officials said Friday.
Two firefighters remain hospitalized. One is in critical condition but stable at Los Angeles General Medical Center in the burn center intensive care unit, and the other is at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center still under observation, said Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. Erik Scott.
The department did not release the names of any of those who were hospitalized.
All the injured firefighters “will receive ongoing treatment and support to begin this long healing process,” Scott said. Their injuries included burns, blunt trauma, shrapnel-inflicted wounds and hearing issues.
“Of course our thoughts and our prayers remain with our injured brothers and we are wishing them a speedy recovery,” Scott said.
The firefighters had responded to a report of a vehicle fire in the 1100 block of Alameda Street shortly before 7 a.m. Thursday. Six minutes after they arrived — as they were attempting to squelch the flames — a 100-gallon compressed natural gas tank that helped power the truck exploded, according to the fire department.
The blast sent a plume of black smoke and flames 30 feet into the air, high enough to reach a transformer on a power line. The explosion threw some of the firefighters dozens of feet, knocking them out temporarily. The less-injured crew members rushed to help the more badly hurt, fire officials said.
The injured firefighters were taken to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center for treatment. Two were listed in critical condition and others were treated for general injuries Thursday. One of the critically injured firefighters, a 37-year-old man who has been with the department for nine years, was airlifted to the L.A. General burn center.
The semi, which was not hauling a trailer at the time of the incident, was unusual in that it wasn’t powered by diesel. Instead, it was a clean-air vehicle fueled by two 100-gallon tanks of compressed natural gas mounted on either side of the truck. The tanks were under 3,300 pounds of pressure, so when one exploded, the blast was significant, fire officials said.
Dr. Molly Deane, a trauma surgeon at Harbor-UCLA, said that after the firefighters were stabilized, she watched a video of the explosion. She said during a Thursday morning news conference that it was “remarkable that none of [the firefighters] were more severely injured.”
It is unclear what caused the truck to catch fire. The driver, who was unharmed, told fire officials she noticed “abnormalities” in the two tanks that power the vehicle, so she stepped outside and called 911.
“My prayers are with each of those firefighters and their families and with the entire department,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn said in a statement. “I have no doubt our LA County doctors and nurses are doing everything they can to save their lives. I have represented Wilmington for decades now and I know that with the truck traffic in that area, a tragedy like this one is something the community has worried about for a long time.”
This story originally appeared on LA Times
