The Santa Fe New Mexican
http://www.firerescue1.com/explosion/articles/1942197-Forest-Service-fir...
SANTA FE, N.M. — A U.S. Forest Service firefighter, on assignment in the Jemez Mountains, was moving a glass jar away from a fence post with his foot Monday afternoon when the jar exploded.
The firefighter, whose name has not yet been released, suffered a rash on his legs and an arm caused by the explosion, but no glass cuts, said Joel Marquez, agent in charge at the Albuquerque field office of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. “We don’t know if foul play was involved,” Marquez said.
Post-blast debris from the jar have been sent to the bureau’s federal crime lab. Marquez said it would take one or two weeks to get results back.
Marquez said the firefighter told investigators he was putting up fire restriction signs on an existing post when he saw the jar and went to move it out of the way. The firefighter was working off of NM 126 not far from the village of La Cueva, near the western boundary of the Valles Caldera National Preserve. The firefighter said it looked like the jar contained a Styrofoam like substance but not liquid.
Marquez said the firefighter was treated and released from University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque Monday.
Donna Nemeth, spokesman with the Santa Fe National Forest, said the firefighter had been assigned to help with initial fire attack and fire patrol. During fire season, firefighters from other states and agencies are assigned to help other national forests or land management agencies as needed.
Marquez said he hadn’t dealt with a similar type of explosion. “This is new,” he said.