Horse’s Shoe Caused Fatal Hyperbaric Tank Explosion

Sparks caused by a kicking horse’s steel shoes prompted a fatal hyperbaric oxygen chamber explosion.
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A Feb. 10 explosion at a hyperbaric oxygen chamber at a Florida equine facility that killed one woman and a horse was caused by contact from the horse’s steel shoe with the chamber.

The Marion County Sheriff’s Office concluded in a report that the explosion, at the Kentucky Equine Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation Center (KESMARC) in Ocala, Fla., was an accident. The blast also injured a second woman.

Killed in the explosion was 28-year-old Erica Marshall, who was employed by KESMARC. Sorcha Moneley, 33, of London, England, who was at the facility to look at the oxygen chamber for possible future use in Europe, was injured during the accident.

According to the report, Moneley said the horse in the chamber had steel shoes on his hooves. He began kicking and knocked off a part of the chamber’s protective padding, revealing a metal surface. When the horse kicked again, Moneley said, a spark was created when one of the steel shoes connected with the metal surface

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Written by:

Ron Mitchell is Online Managing Editor for The Blood-Horse magazine. A Lexington native, Mitchell joined The Blood-Horse after serving in editorial capacities with The Thoroughbred Record and Thoroughbred Times, specializing in business and auction aspects of the industry, and was editor-in-chief of the award-winning Horsemen’s Journal. As online managing editor, Mitchell works closely with The Blood-Horse news editor and other departments to make sure the website content is the most thorough and accurate source for all Thoroughbred news, results, videos, and data.

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