ORLANDO, Fla. -- Authorities have released their final report on the hyperbaric chamber explosion that killed a woman at a Marion County horse rehab facility this month, ruling the blast was an accident.
Witnesses, including Sorcha Moneley, a worker at KESMARC Florida who was seriously injured in the explosion, told deputies the horse inside the chamber on Feb. 11 began kicking.
Moneley, 33, said the steel-shoed horse knocked off a part of the chamber, revealing a metal surface. When the horse kicked again, Moneley said, the chamber wall sparked.
Moneley told deputies she ran to get help as co-worker Erica Marshall attempted to return the chamber to normal pressure. Then, Moneley heard a pair of explosions, deputies said.
Marshall, 28, was killed in the blast. Moneley was taken to Shands hospital in Gainesville. The horse, which deputies say was from a farm in Virginia, was also killed in the explosion.
According to its website, KESMARC Florida is "a world class equine rehabilitation facility, dedicated to the recovery and conditioning of equine athletes" and show horses.
Moneley told deputies there had been problems recently with pressure valves on the chamber, but the report does not indicate that those issues were a factor in the explosion last week.
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