Employee working on fire extinguisher seriously injured at Bombardier, official says

An employee was seriously injured Thursday morning at Bombardier in west Wichita in an accident involving a fire extinguisher, officials said.

It was originally reported as an explosion.

Around 10:27 a.m., a security guard reported that a 50-year-old man had been injured, according to a Sedgwick County Emergency Communications supervisor. The injured person was transported to an area hospital with serious injuries, the supervisor said.

In an email, Bombardier spokesperson Heather Neale said the “incident was isolated and has been traced to an obsolete part the employee was working on at the time.”

“The investigation is still ongoing so we cannot share more details at this time,” Neale said.

Wichita police spokesperson Paul Cruz said the person was manipulating a fire extinguisher when it exploded. He was unsure what exactly the person was doing with the fire extinguisher. He said it didn’t cause a fire or any damage to the building.

“It was more or less an occupational injury,” he said.

This story was originally published May 12, 2022 at 11:07 AM.