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Two people were killed on Friday when a steam line exploded on the campus of a Connecticut Veterans’ Hospital, officials said.
The explosion occurred shortly after 8 a.m. in a maintenance building on VA grounds but separate from the medical clinic, according to a hospital spokesperson.
According to Alfred Montoya, director of the VA Connecticut Healthcare System medical center, three other workers suffered minor injuries in the explosion that occurred while replacing a basement steam pipe.
One of those killed was a Navy veteran, Montoya said.
“We received a report this morning that an explosion occurred at the West Haven campus of the VA Connecticut health system that resulted in two deaths in a non-patient care area,” according to a statement from the secretary of the VA, Robert Wilkie.
“None of the victims were VA patients and patient care was not affected. Emergency personnel are on the scene. Our prayers are with the families of the victims of this explosion.”
Medical care in this VA, located about 120 km north of Midtown Manhattan and 45 km south of the Connecticut state capital of Hartford, is expected to continue.
“The hospital continues to operate, no patients in the hospital should be affected,” US Senator Richard Blumenthal of D-Connecticut told reporters in Washington. “Hospital care is apparently continuing at the same level as usual.”
Blumenthal and his Connecticut colleague, US Senator Chris Murphy, have both called for a major overhaul, if not a complete replacement, of this West Haven campus.
“The VA is from the 1950s, it’s a creaky old-fashioned old facility,” Blumenthal said. “It has a new hull on the outside but it has structural weaknesses.”
Murphy singled out the campus heating and air conditioning systems that he called “too old.”
“And while they’ve made a lot of upgrades, that’s part of the reason the whole campus needs to be rebuilt,” Murphy said.
Local fire marshals and detectives from the State Police Fire and Explosion Investigation Unit responded to the hospital at 950 Campbell Ave. in West Haven, authorities said.
“My thoughts and prayers are with the families of those who lost their lives in the VA explosion,” Senator James Maroney, a Democrat who represents West Haven, said in a statement.
“I have nothing but gratitude and appreciation for the first responders who are on hand to deal with the situation as we wait to find out what caused the explosion.”
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