Man suffers multiple burns after truck battery blew up in his face - NZ Herald

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.

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"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.

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