September 14, 2018
A man has been taken to hospital with multiple burns to his body after a battery explosion.
At 9.15am today, crew of the Auckland Westpac Rescue Helicopter were tasked to Great Barrier Island to assist a male patient whose truck battery blew up in his face.
Paramedic Chris Deacon said the man had a domiciliary electrical supply and was connecting up some batteries to recharge them.
"That is quite normal on the island as there are a lot of people who have to generate their own electricity," he said.
"However, some battery acid had spilled out on to the terminals and when he put the electrical leads on there it just exploded and made a bomb, and a chunk of the side of the battery blew out and hit him."
The man, from Katherine Bay, suffered multiple burns to his body.
Deacon said a nurse on the island responded to the incident and transported the patient to Okiwi Airfield before he was flown to Auckland City Hospital in a moderate condition.
