Two Ottawa paramedics are sitting up and alert today, one day after an explosion sent them to hospital. Craig MacInnes and Reid Purdy are still in serious condition but there is every expectation they will be fine. There has been a steady stream of paramedics and police to the Intensive Care Unit at the Ottawa Hospital. Among them, the chief of the paramedics Anthony Di Monte, checking in on the two members injured in yesterday's explosion.
"I'm very pleased and optimistic,” Di Monte told reporters outside the hospital, “and the medical information we have supports that but I'm aware that they are in the Intensive Care Unit and they've got several days ahead.”
While they heal, the work begins now to understand what happened. The Special Investigations Unit and the Ontario Ministry of Labor have parallel investigations underway. Charges are a possibility.
"Our role is to determine whether the police did anything criminal where civilians were injured or killed,” says the SIU’s lead investigator, Rick Deering. “We can only speculate at this point what happened and we don't like to do that. We like to determine by virtue of the information we're able to uncover.”
Five first responders were injured Wednesday morning during a training exercise in Ottawa’s west end. It was a joint exercise involving RCMP, Ottawa Police and paramedics, using explosives to force an entry into an abandoned home. Superintendent Craig MacInnes, a 22-year veteran of the Paramedic Service, and Reid Purdy, a young father and eight year veteran, took the brunt of the blast. They both have 2nd degree burns to over ten percent of their body.
"Yesterday was a difficult day,” says Di Monte, “when you see two of your members arrive in your vehicles and they're both sedated and in rough shape.”
Two police officers and another paramedic had minor injuries. That paramedic, Brad Ross, was injured rushing to help his colleagues.
“His reaction was to go to his colleagues,” Di Monte continued, “and I can tell you doors were being broken down by cops, by Mounties and other tactical members to get in there so it was really a team effort.”
It will take a team effort, too, to determine what went wrong. The SIU hopes to complete its investigation within a month.
