The I-Team is investigating that a 1 alarm fire incident was being responded to at the John J. Pershing VA Medical Center in Poplar Bluff, MO.
I-Team corespondent, Jerry Burner, spoke this afternoon with patient and Vietnam Vet Terry Hood of Aquila, MO. Hood stated that he’d been visiting friends and had several helpings of a “George’s Chili.”
Hood said, “One minute I was just on the elevator, waiting on my floor to get off. I was alone and thought it would be safe to relieve some of the pressure, you know?”
Hood said that he pressed the door close button before a lady could get on at the next floor and that’s when Hood says, “Everything event WHOOOSH!!”
“I was just trying to be polite, you know? No lady needs to smell that. Then she stuck her arm inside the elevator and everything went WHOOOOSH!!! All I saw was blue light and her waving her arm around like crazy as her blouse sleeve caught fire. I think it was a spark from the control panel when I hit the close door button. That poor woman.”
Hood sustained 1st degree flash burns to his face and hands. He suffered 2nd degree burns when his abnormally bushy eyebrows and the seat of his dungarees did a more prolonged burn.
The condition of the woman is unknown at this time. More at 11:00.