Kesmarc-Ocala Hyperbaric explosion

[Kasept]

http://www.ocala.com/article/2012021...CLES/120219990

One woman, one horse dead. Another woman badly hurt. Scary.

[Arletta]

Good lord! This is so sad

[VOL JACK]

Eisaman Equine has a photo of the barn on their Facebook page.

[Kasept]

Horse killed was an eventer: http://www.eventingnation.com/home/

[Riot]

Terrible, tragic thing. My heart goes out to the families. Kesmarc has always had a reputation for doing good, safe hyperbaric medicine.

Darren Ley, who works at New Episode Training Center at 2001 NW 110th Ave. told a Star-Banner reporter that people he knew at Kesmarc told him that the horse was shoed and that the thrashing of the animal's hooves may have ignited a spark.

Standard procedure is to cover shoes w/wrap, remove them to prevent spark, or use rubber floor/walls. Use only cotton halters without metal. Dampen down the haircoat first with water to remove static spark threat. Etc.

Sparks will cause an in-chamber fire of combustables, but rarely an explosion. From the video,

http://www.wptv.com/dpp/tablet_showc...itation-center

it appears the chamber is still intact, but blew straight up off the foundation. There isn't much to kick inside that chamber model, but a sudden decompression could cause a non-fire "explosion".

[trackrat59]

This is so sad. It's one of the last things you think you will ever read about.

This happened about two miles down 326 from us, and we heard the explosion. Lots of sirens followed. HITS (Horseshow in the Sun) is in progress down here, so lots of show horses and people around.

I believe Kesmarc is the old Farnsworth Farms facility.

Very sad.


Ocala Mike

[paisjpq]

from what I've heard they were doing a rapid release to get the horse out becasue he was panicking. In that situation a spark could very well have caused this explosion. Terrible tragedy.

[trackrat59]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...e-chamber.html

RIP Erica. Prayers for her husband. So sad.

That's awful.

Something needs to be done about safety. This could have been prevented with a system of fines and punishment. The fact that they didn't have someone from Homeland Security there to monitor the treatment speaks volumes about their competency. Everyone knows that a Homeland Security officer can be the difference between life and death.