Two firefighters were hospitalized, one with serious burns, following a sudden propane gas explosion on Saturday afternoon in Portland, Connecticut.
Lieutenant Todd Ghent, a member of the department for 30 years, remained in the hospital Sunday, where he was listed in fair condition in the intensive care unit with burns to his head, face and neck, according to a report. Twenty-year member Firefighter Tim Goff, who suffered burns to his hands, had been released Sunday morning from a different hospital.
According to the Hartford Courant, Portland Fire Chief Robert Shea said the two were standing eight feet apart when gas spread by a propane leak tore apart a duplex building and caused a fireball to flash across part of the yard behind the property where they were standing. The propane leak is suspected to have been caused when a backhoe operator removing snow from a driveway circled to the rear of the building and accidentally damaged equipment used to fill and provide access to a buried propane tank.
According to the news report, the volatile release occurred so quickly that firefighters had almost no time to react.
Read the entire report HERE.
