Patient smoking while using oxygen starts fire that badly burns person, NC officials say
One person was badly burned when a North Carolina nursing home resident using oxygen tried to smoke a cigarette, officials say.
Firefighters responded at 3 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 7, to reports of a fire at a “large nursing care facility” in Burlington and found EMS already evacuating residents, according to a news release from the Burlington Fire Department.
No fire was found in the building, but “light to moderate” smoke was seen coming from a room and a hallway, where firefighters found a patient “who had been severely burned,” the fire department said.
“The first arriving fire crew and EMS personnel began medical treatment of the burned patient immediately while incoming fire crews, other EMS personnel and Burlington Police officers assisted moving building occupants to shelter-in-place locations where there was no smoke present,” firefighters said.
The injured person, who firefighters described only as a patient, was taken to a hospital and later taken to a burn unit in Chapel Hill. The patient was in stable condition as of Jan. 7, firefighters said.
The release did not say if the injured person is the same person who tried to smoke.
Firefighters said investigators determined the fire was accidental and caused by “a resident of the nursing facility attempting to smoke a cigarette while on medical oxygen.”
Facility workers pulled a fire alarm when they noticed the smoke and began evacuating residents.
The building wasn’t damaged.
“Medical oxygen being delivered at 100% rapidly accelerates combustion and can ignite in the presence of flames, such as that of a cigarette,” the fire department said.
The U.S. Fire Administration says oxygen tanks need to be kept at least 5 feet away from any source of heat, including open flames and electrical devices. Candles, matches, lighters and other open flames should never be used near medical oxygen, the administration says.
Burlington is about 60 miles northwest of Raleigh.
This story was originally published January 8, 2023 at 12:34 PM with the headline "Patient smoking while using oxygen starts fire that badly burns person, NC officials say."
