Posted on 02/05/2005 5:58:05 PM PST by Ellesu
BOCA RATON, Fla. -- A 62-year-old Boca Raton woman died Friday after lighting a cigarette while using an oxygen tank, officials said.
Rosalyn Sedlak's death is being termed accidental by Palm Beach County sheriff's officials. She was smoking in a bedroom of her 87-year-old mother's home when the fire started and managed to get into a nearby bathroom, but collapsed there and was dead when firefighters arrived.
"You just don't smoke in an oxygen-enriched atmosphere," fire-rescue Capt. Don DeLucia told The Palm Beach Post for its Saturday editions. "The public has to realize that if they absolutely have to smoke, turn the oxygen off."
Sedlak's mother, Frances Winkler, was distraught but uninjured. Sedlak moved in with her mother after undergoing open-heart surgery about two years ago, neighbors said.
Let me guess, the tobacco industry will be blamed because this woman was a complete idiot!
bump
Rosalyn Sedlak, this butt's for you!
another link:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-pfiredeath05feb05,0,336032.story?coll=sfla-news-palm
Woman dies in oxygen tank fire
Cigarette started blaze, authorities say
By Akilah Johnson
Staff Writer
Posted February 5 2005
West Boca · A 62-year-old woman who was hooked up to a home oxygen machine was killed Thursday morning after she lit a cigarette and it sparked, igniting her clothes, Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue officials said.
Rosalyn Merry Sedlak was not supposed to smoke while connected to the machine because oxygen saturates clothing and acts as an accelerant if touched by an ember, officials said.
That's apparently what happened Thursday morning in the 6400 block of Casabella Lane, west of Boca Raton.
"Her shirt caught fire from the cigarette," Capt. Don DeLucia said.
Sedlak, who went by Merry because she was born on Christmas Day, was in her bedroom about 7:30 a.m. when her top ignited, he said. She rushed to the bathroom to try to put out the fire but was overwhelmed, officials said.
Her 87-year-old mother, Frances Winkler, tried to help douse the flames, but their efforts failed.
"She was a warm, caring, sensing ... person who really cared deeply about doing the right thing," her son Lance Sedlak, of Colorado, said. He and his brother Heath Sedlak, of Daytona Beach, rushed to South Florida upon hearing of their mother's death.
Hours after the fire, Sedlak's body lay on the front lawn, covered by a yellow tarp, surrounded by pink and purple impatiens.
Sedlek's death has fire officials warning against the deadly mix of oxygen and smoking.
"A good message to people who are on oxygen at home is to absolutely, positively not have any type of cigarette or flame near that oxygen," DeLucia said. "If you're on oxygen, don't smoke."
Sonia Laffitte, Winkler's health-care aide, said she rushed to the home as soon as she got Winkler's frantic voicemail message. All she could make out was, "There was a fire at the house ... and Rosalyn ... and can you come over."
So she did.
"I heard, but I didn't know," Laffitte said, as she walked Sedlak's beloved parti poodles Camelot and Kizmet. "I just thought there was a little smoke in the room."
The fire caused minimal damage to the home, officials said.
Neighbors said Winkler has lived in the neighborhood for more than 20 years. Her daughter, who suffered from heart problems, moved in four years ago after having open-heart surgery, family members said.
Lance Sedlak said his mother used the oxygen machine because her heart did not pump enough oxygen through her blood stream. Her condition left her unable to travel to Colorado to visit her two grandchildren so her room "is virtually wallpapered with pictures of the family," he said.
Besides her family, Sedlak's other love was parti poodles.
"She was even able to convince me," Lance Sedlak said. "Never did I think I would get a poodle. I was a yellow lab type of guy, but we have a parti poodle in Colorado ... "
I have an aunt who was dying of lung cancer and on oxygen in the hospital. She lighted a cig and was smoking. There wasn't exactly an explosion {she was on nasal oxygen} but she got burned pretty bad in her nose, throat and face. She died a short time later.
I guess the smoking lamp wasn't lit.
Sedlak, who went by Merry because she was born on Christmas Day...
Oxygen+fire=disaster.
Do the math.
As dumb as she was, it's probably the only way she could remember when her birthday was.
I wonder if the "no smoking" little placards on the tank gave her a clue...........oh well
"Sedlak, who went by Merry because she was born on Christmas Day..."
And named her two sons Heath and Lance and her dogs Camelot and Kismet
Her lawyers will probably say that there should have been a warning on the cigarette pack not to smoke while using an oxygen tank.
Oxygen line (or tank) fires are pretty nasty [been there, done that in laboratory environment]. It is possible to extinguish a small fire fed by oxygen, but it requires very rapid response, knowledge and training.
The patient ended up walking out to the parking lot, with the IV rack, and smoking her cigarettes while getting chemo for lung cancer. She didn't make it either.
There should be another Darwin award. Recipients, that miraculously and against all perceivable odds, make it to old age.
My mother died of cancer at 47. She was always fit, never smoked and didn't drink. All four of my natural grandparents smoked into their nineties. Go figure.
I'm sorry.
Anyone who exposes any kind of hydrocarbon fuel to oxygen without the right equiptment and training is either totally ignorant or a fool.
For example:
Acetylene gas in a normal atmosphere burns with a very yellow, fairly cool smokey flame.
Mix it with oxygen in the right proportions and it will boil steel, hottest fire on the planet with exception of electric arc and nuclear.
A cigarette that barely smolders will light off like a 4th of July sparkler when in a total oxygen environment.
Oil, grease, gasoline mixed or exposed to oxygen is a total bomb.
Main thing is be careful, speaking 30 years experience as a welder.
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