Walter Foxcroft III was killed in a flash fire inside a hyperbaric chamber, according to the Lake Havasu City Fire Department. Foxcroft was the founder of Havasu Health and Hyperbarics, where the incident occurred.
A Lake Havasu City, Ariz, physical therapist died Wednesday night after a flash fire appeared to have erupted while he was inside a hyperbaric chamber at his wellness facility.
According to the city’s fire department, around 10:50 pm on July 9, Lake Havasu City Fire Department and Police Department personnel responded to a medical emergency involving a burn patient at a facility in the 1800 block of Mesquite Avenue. The 911 caller reported that the patient had been inside a hyperbaric chamber at the time of the incident, prompting an upgraded fire response to ensure sufficient resources for both medical aid and hazard mitigation.
Responding crews found smoke throughout the building and an intact hyperbaric chamber that appeared to have experienced a flash fire. Forty-three-year-old Walter Foxcroft III was located inside the chamber and pronounced dead at the scene. He was the only individual injured in the incident.
Foxcroft was the founder of the facility, Havasu Health and Hyperbarics.
The fire department reported that five engine companies, one medic unit, and a battalion chief responded to the call. The building was ventilated and checked for additional hazards. The cause of the fire and the circumstances surrounding the incident remain under investigation by local police and fire investigators.
The incident marks at least the second fatal accident involving a hyperbaric chamber in the United States this year. In January, a 5-year-old boy was killed and his mother injured when a hyperbaric chamber exploded at an alternative therapy center in Troy, Mich.
ID 49296790 © Edward Olive | Dreamstime.com
