Emergency Medical services had their hands full today when an unprecedented 150 plus patients had to be taken to various hospitals.
ER24’s national control room in Johannesburg received a call at 12:34 that a major gas leak had occurred at a factory in Epping industria. Moments later when the paramedics arrived at the scene they were shocked at the amount people still streaming out of the surrounding buildings. The paramedics noticed a faint dull smelling gas in the air surrounding the area. With teams allocated to triage the vast amount of patients to various hospitals additional resources were dispatched to the incident. A total of five ER24 ambulances were called in to assist with the situation, bringing the total of on-scene vehicles to eight. Emergency services worked desperately to remove all of the people out of the gas cloud and decided to relocate the injured to the nearby Epping fire station from where they will be taken to hospital.
Although most of the patients had minor gas inhalation symptoms and were coughing, according to paramedics on the scene a number of patients did lose consciousness and needed specialized medical treatment. Hazmat authorities took charge of the scene and will be investigating the origins and specifications of the gas in question.
Andre Visser
ER24
