OKLAHOMA CITY --
Oklahoma City's fire chief personally called the family of a teen whose arm was amputated in an oil pump accident to explain that photos of the incident had been leaked to the Internet and posted to a Web site.
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Anthony Gray, 17, lost the arm when he got trapped in a pump jack in early February.
Firefighters took pictures of the gruesome scene to document the rescue, and they were supposed to be secure and classified on a departmental hard drive.
"Only a few people are normally able to access photographs or anything in the 'Z' drive. In this case, those permissions weren't set at the time they were accessed," said Oklahoma City Fire Chief Keith Bryant.
That made the photos accessible to everybody in the department, and somebody forwarded them -- first to another fire department and then to the Internet for all to see.
"I don't believe there was any ill intent on the part of any of our personnel," Bryant said. "But once they get on the Internet, they are totally out of our control. Anything can happen as we can see."
Eyewitness News 5 confirmed Tuesday morning that the photos had been published on a Web site that posts gruesome photos and videos.
Bryant said there is an internal investigation to detemine who had access to the photos and who forwarded them. However, he acknowledges that it may never be known who forwarded them.
"We fixed that security issue with that drive so that it is not an issue anymore," Bryant said.
The Oklahoma Fire Department sometimes takes pictures of rescues for training purposes or in case a lawsuit is filed.
