LAGRANGE – A worker that was refilling Arlington Central School District buses with liquid propane gas (LPG) sustained serious injuries during a mishap on Thursday. The call to 911, at approximately 12:20 p.m., was reported as a victim with burns resulting from a vehicle fire, at the district facility on Todd Hill Road.
A LaGrange Fire Department EMS unit responded to the location and determined that the victim had been filling a bus with LPG when the hose mechanism came unhooked, resulting in the man being doused with LPG. The gas, in its liquid form, is approximately 240 degrees below zero.
The worker, an employee of a propane delivery company, sustained substantial injuries to his torso. He was airlifted to a burn unit for further treatment of cryogenic burns.
The emergency call was one of three that the LaGrange Fire Department received in just a few minutes. The department also responded to another EMS call, while the remaining firefighters were dispatched to a large house fire on Noxon Road.
The crews that responded to the LPG incident and the EMS call relocated to the structure fire after they cleared from the original assignments. The structure fire required several fire departments to assist the LaGrange department in battling the blaze in a large house built more than 200 years ago.
“We have top-notch crews here in the LaGrange Fire District,” District Chief Tim O’Connor said. “We do tremendous work with a limited amount of manpower.”
