On February 7 2008 the imperial sugar refinery exploded. It was mentioned in another thread and I have pictures from inside while we were searching for the missing people. It was catastrophic damage. I was a paramedic and the third ambulance there. If you saw the aftermath of that tanker explosion. That’s what everyone looked like. Anyway here is a csb video explaining what happened. It was truly the craziest shit I have ever seen.

https://youtu.be/Jg7mLSG-Yws

That's horrific. Did you find anyone alive?

Yea we did. My first patient I met in a parking lot. He was on the fourth floor and took the fireball to his face. He was burned 3rd degree over 85% of his body!!! The. Rest was second. He escaped and made it outside and some guy let him sit in their car and they were going to drive to the ambulance. He was still smoking. Skin falling off. Get the stretcher and out down a burn sheet. Gently gently put him in there and another burn sheet on top. I’ll I’ve sites are burned so I said fuck it. Have him two 18’s on on each arm. I managed to have him give me his name and birthdate. I wanted that so when he died back here I would know how to get in touch with his family. Then I gave him all the morphine in the truck. At once. Tried to put this poor man out of his misery. The pain definitely subsided. No more yelling and screaming. I’m at the head ready to intubate him. (We didn’t have rsi then) beat feet to the hospital. He breathed in his own with a non rebreather. Then 10 months later he woke up in the burn unit. Him and I are still friends.

Holy shit. That’s one tough dude. God bless you for helping him with the pain. Do you think it helped with the shock?

He told me the only thing he remembered about me was putting two shots in his arms and that was it. I gave him two ivs and then the morphine. All of it. At once.

Wow.

That's amazing.

The CSB video's are very well done.

Not after the first night. The fire burned for days. However I will say the mass casualty event went so smooth. The people of Savannah should be proud to have such great professionals in their city.

I’m so glad he made it. Thank you for sharing. Awesome you guys are friends.

I use the cab video in chemistry class when we talk about reaction rates. Airborne powders are almost as fast in their reaction rates as gases because of the huge surface area. We think of factory explosions like this as being a nineteenth century thing. That this was recent is really jarring.

Great story, thanks. Rough case, but you did good.

Walt Disney World used Cremora Light for their dragaon flame effects at the Fantastia show at Epcot. It is remarkably flammable once aerosolized but inert while compact. Just blow some from your hand into a flame to create an amazing and brief dragon’s breath!

Myth busters did that on a giant scale.

Thank you.

Here is an article about that patient

https://www.savannahnow.com/story/news/2009/02/06/bittersweet-reunion-responders-survivors-refinery-blast-gather-year-later/13603134007/

Were these taken with an early 2000’s flip phone?

Yep. It was in 2008. Cameras weren’t great then.