Missouri mother dies a week after being rescued from a fireworks warehouse explosion
A 28-year-old woman in southwest Missouri died one week after firefighters rescued her in an explosion at a fireworks shop.
Samantha Dean, a mother of one who was engaged to be married, died Tuesday, her mother announced. A Facebook page updating relatives and friends on Dean's condition noted she had fourth-degree burns covering 60 percent of her body as a result of the blast.
The explosion happened at a fireworks retail and manufacturing shop near Pleasant Hope on the night of July 3. The facility is owned and operated by a Buffalo-based company called AM Pyrotechnics. It's the same company that provides professional firework displays following home games for the Springfield Cardinals.
Tracy Livingston, Dean's mother, told KOLR10 her daughter worked for AM Pyrotechnics and was preparing for the Springfield Cardinals' Independence Day celebration on the night the explosion happened.
She was the only employee inside the shop at the time, KOLR10 reported.
Ten fire departments from the surrounding area responded to the fire, and according to the Pleasant Hope Fire Protection District, the building was "a total loss."
Dean was taken by helicopter to a hospital in Springfield, where she was placed in a medically induced coma and underwent surgery. She died days later as a result of her injuries.
She had an 8-month-old son.
The cause of the explosion that ultimately killed Dean is still under investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, according to the Bolivar Herald-Free Press. A bureau spokesman described it as "a tragic accident."
A GoFundMe account created to help Dean's family cover medical costs has raised more than $11,000. Now, as Livingston said online, the donations will help with her daughter's funeral costs.
"She loved what she did. She loved fireworks," Livingston told KY3 in an interview. "She loves her son. He was a miracle, and he was everything to her. She would drop anything and everything, even her other loves for him, so I just want them to know, or to remember her, with the grace that she was and the amazing smile and love that she gave the world."