One person died and another was seriously injured when an ambulance suddenly caught fire in a possible explosion in Hawaii.
An ambulance from Kaneohe was taking a 91-year-old man in Kailua to Adventist Castle Health hospital on Wednesday evening when it suddenly caught fire.
“Tonight we had an ambulance, for reasons we don’t understand, catch fire and possibly explode before entering the hospital,” stated: Honolulu Emergency Services Director Dr Jim Ireland.
The patient died in the fire.
Photos and videos of the scene show flames and black smoke seeping from the rear of the vehicle.
The injured paramedic has been working for EMS for eight years. He was still in critical condition on Thursday afternoon and was taken to a hospital in a burn department.
Another EMT who worked in the ambulance was unharmed.
My deepest condolences and strength to the family and friends of the patient who died in the fire on Wednesday evening. Keep our paramedic in your mind. We pray that he makes a full recovery,” Ireland said.
“A heartfelt mahalo to the staff of Adventist Heath Castle, our entire EMS ‘ohana, the Honolulu Fire Department for their prompt response and all the hands that have responded to this tragedy.”
The Honolulu Fire Department is investigating the incident.
It is not the first ambulance accident this year in the US and abroad. In April, a trauma helicopter crashed in upstate New York, killing two people.
In May, a man in the UK died after a Bugatti driver hit ambulance at a fork on the A6 in Bedfordshire.
And earlier this month, a UK heart attack patient dies after an ambulance taking him to hospital crashed into a wall. The man died as a result of serious injuries to the chest and head from the impact, not from his heart attack.
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