It's been seven years since a sugar refinery explosion in Savannah, Ga., killed 14 people and injured hundreds more.
Dr. Robert Mullins is the Medical Director at the Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta, Ga., and said he will never forget where he was when he heard the news about the explosion at the Imperial Sugar Refinery.
"You know, it's almost like it was a week or two ago," Mullins said. "I was walking into a conference we were holding, and got a call that there was a big explosion. There was possibly 200 patients that had been burned. I thought it was almost surreal, I thought it was a joke."
The staff at the Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta immediately went into action, and sent medical crews down to Savannah to help treat patients, and to life flight some of them back to Augusta.
Twenty three patients were treated for burns, and Mullins said some victims came in with 90% or more of their body burned from the explosion.
Mullins says through all the surgeries and treatments, it was what happened outside of the hospital that stood out to him the most.
"The community here stepped up to the plate and started helping set things up and helping care for those families," he said. "Bringing food, helping the patients ' families find places to stay, setting up tents."
While the physical scars of the victims are slowly healing, Mullins said not a day goes by without thinking of the events of February 7, 2008.
"I can still see the faces of a lot of the patients. Some that didn't make it and some that are still with us," said Mullins.
The Joseph M. Still Burn Center is giving a presentation on the disaster and their response to the National Institute of Health this spring at a conference in Washington, D.C. Mullins also said the incident has served as a training model here in Augusta and in other cities across the nation.
Source: www.wtoc.com