1 of 2 | An explosion at a medical facility hyperbaric chamber in suburban Detroit Friday has left a 5-year-old boy dead, police confirmed at a news conference.
Photo courtesy of the Troy Police Department
Jan. 31 (UPI) — An explosion at a medical facility hyperbaric chamber in suburban Detroit Friday has left a 5-year-old boy dead, police confirmed at a news conference.
The child was inside the chamber at the Oxford Recovery Center in Troy, Mich., when it exploded, Troy Fire Department said in a statement on the department’s Facebook page.
The explosion happened at about 8 a.m. EST Friday and also injured the boy’s mother, according to medical facility officials.
“Upon arrival it was determined the child inside the chamber was deceased. The victim was identified as a 5-year-old boy from Royal Oak,” the fire department said in the statement.
“A hyperbaric chamber contains 100 percent oxygen, which is up to three times the amount of oxygen than a normal room. The presence of such a high amount of oxygen in a pressurized environment can make it extremely combustible.”
Firefighters were able to quickly contain and extinguish the blaze.
The department said its initial research shows the type of incident is “uncommon.”
The Oxford Center uses “a holistic approach to treating autism,” the center says on its website.
It also details its use of hyperbaric chambers as part of treatment.
“This is an exceptionally difficult day for all of us,” Oxford Center spokesman Andrew Kistner told The Detroit News in an emailed statement.
“As law enforcement officials have shared, at our location in Troy, Michigan this morning, a fire started inside a hyperbaric oxygen chamber. The child being treated in that chamber did not survive and the child’s mother was injured.”