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Evacuee bus fire sparks transport safety questions

Transporting patients with portable oxygen is a routine procedure, and an unavoidable risk, some say.

By JUSTIN GEORGE
Published September 27, 2005

Portable oxygen can prolong life and grant mobility to the very ill. But the canisters that carry the gas bring with them an intrinsic risk.

That was evident last week when a bus carrying elderly hurricane evacuees from a Houston area nursing home became a rolling inferno that killed 24 people.

Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board are looking at what role the patients' oxygen canisters played in fueling the fire and explosions on the bus. Witnesses have pointed to the brakes or mechanical failure as the possible cause.

The accident caused the U.S. Transportation Department to issue a bus industry advisory on how to safely transport medical oxygen containers. Locally, emergency managers and others say they don't plan any changes on how to deal with transporting oxygen users - a relatively common occurrence.

Portable oxygen is an appendage of the ill, they say, and driving or riding with the canisters is a necessary risk thousands of people take every day.

"There's absolutely nothing wrong with it," Pasco County Emergency Operations Coordinator Jim Johnston said. "There's no DOT regulations against it. It's absolutely normal daily routine."

The Florida Department of Transportation doesn't have any rules or standards for transporting oxygen tanks, said Lt. Jeff Frost of the Motor Carrier Compliance Office. The state Department of Education, meanwhile, has a 14-point list of guidelines, which include securing tanks to school bus walls or racks.

Pasco and Pinellas counties will continue to rely on buses to move residents who use portable oxygen out of hurricane evacuation areas and into nearby special needs storm shelters. Pinellas' buses will have medical personnel onboard to help, spokeswoman Maggie Hall said.

"The short answer is any time you put oxygen in a place where a fire could occur, there could be danger," said Carl Johnson, president of the Compressed Gas Association, which promotes safety standards and practices in the industrial gas industry. "It's like saying something has to be forever safe, and there are risks in everything you do."

Oxygen supports combustion. Fuel, heat and oxygen are all needed in the right combination to produce fire, and a fire needs air that contains at least 16 percent oxygen, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. (Oxygen canisters can contain as much as 99.9 percent pure oxygen).

One important safety measure for transporting oxygen tanks, Johnson said, would be to make sure the vehicles carrying them are in good working order.

Other people who oversee the transportation of the ill said they do take some special precautions regarding the tanks. The South Heritage Health and Rehab Center in St. Petersburg relies on ambulances when moving people who must have oxygen at all times, said administrator John Vunk.

His concern wasn't just fires.

"Those tanks will take off like a torpedo if they fall and the top snaps off," he said.

Peter Wilson, a Virginia man who relies on portable oxygen, created portableoxygen.org, which includes a presentation on how to safely move portable oxygen. He recommended using seat belts and bungee cords to lock oxygen tanks and related machines in place. Even sticking oxygen tanks between users' legs can keep them from becoming flying missiles, he said.

But there's always going to be danger.

"I look at the bus accident as a horrific situation, but one that was probably unavoidable because the accident was not caused by the patients and oxygen but by a problem with the bus," he said.

--Justin George can be reached at 813 226-3368 or jgeorge@sptimes.com

[Last modified September 27, 2005, 02:45:31]