VICTIMS of explosions involving gas or fuels are initially more likely to die from inhaling smoke and hot fumes than from their burns, according to a leading surgeon.
Professor Arthur Li Kwok-cheung, dean of the faculty of medicine at the Chinese University, said: ''The main danger is not so much the heat generated, which burns the skin and clothes, but inhalation of smoke. That is what kills the individual.'' However, even if patients survived the initial inhalation of smoke, they were still in danger of dying of lung damage caused by breathing the hot fumes.
Professor Li, also chairman of surgery at the Prince of Wales Hospital, said the body reacted to damaged tissue by swelling and leaking body fluids.
When the damaged tissue was in the lungs, ''they could actually die of drowning through water clogging the lungs'', he said.
If the patient survived this stage, he was then at risk through his burn injuries - ''the actual loss of skin and the loss of fluid''.
Professor Li said one of the problems with burns victims was the body leaked water plasma - that is, protein-rich water.