Oxygen Tank Explosion: North Carolina Woman Dies After Lighting Cigarette Nearby

A North Carolina woman died on Tuesday when her lit cigarette ignited while she was being administered oxygen.

Sixty-one-year-old Belinda Coble was smoking while being administered oxygen in her Zebulon home about 25 miles east of Raleigh when her cigarette ignited the tank and cause a small explosion and fire.

According to WNCN, Coble’s husband was in another room when the sounds of explosion alerted him and prompted him to call 911. Coble was dead when emergency medical services arrived on the scene.

Oxygen Concentrator Store, which supplies portable oxygen machines, warned of the dangers of smoking near oxygen tanks and machines.

"If a spark catches the oxygen and has a fuel source, it will ignite and spread extremely fast," the store wrote in a 2015 blog post. "The 'fuel source' can be anything from a small patch of dry grass, a carpet, or your clothing or hair."

According to the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) oxygen is a common and strong oxidizer which means that it can initiate or accelerate the burning of fuels, and is therefore included in the list of fire hazards.