HORSE SHOE CAUSES EXPLOSION

Put this one under the weird but sadly true …

The following is a report from the UK’s Telegraph newspaper:

An equine expert, Erica Marshall, was killed when a horse she was treating in an oxygen chamber became spooked and kicked out, sparking a freak explosion which could be heard 30 miles away.

Mrs Marshall, a 28-year-old newlywed, was monitoring a horse receiving oxygen therapy when the animal kicked through the wall of the pressurised hyperbaric chamber.

Its steel horseshoe created a spark which caused a huge blast which threw debris 400m and could be heard 40kms away.

Part of the roof and side of the chamber was ripped off in the explosion, killing the horse and Erica who was watching the horse via video link in a nearby room.

Erica moved to Ocala in Florida in 2010 after she was offered her dream job at the Kentucky Equine Sports and Rehabilitation Centre.

It is believed the horse kicked through the padding inside the chamber and its shoe sparked when it connected with out metal wall - igniting the oxygen.

Erica had been running the chamber for two years had treated between two to six horses every day.

The horse had not been tranquilised before using the chamber as it had been inside four times previously and not had any adverse reaction.

Hyperbaric chambers are used to speed up recovery times in injured horses by exposing them to pressurised oxygen.

Thirty other horses inside the Kentucky Equine Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation Centre were not hurt in the explosion.