A patient was killed and a paramedic left critically injured on Wednesday night when an apparent explosion ripped through an ambulance outside Adventist Health Castle hospital.
An EMT in the front of the ambulance was also treated for injuries and is in stable condition.
At a news conference outside the Kailua hospital late Wednesday, a visibly shaken city Emergency Services Director Dr. Jim Ireland said it remained unclear what caused the ambulance to erupt in flames. “This is something I’ve never seen before,” he said.
Ireland said the patient who died was in the back of the ambulance with the paramedic, an eight-year veteran of the city. The paramedic has been transferred to the Straub Medical Center, he added.
“It’s just very hard to be in the situation where our team is the one who is injured,” Ireland said.