Comer man seriously burned in gasoline fire, second Comer person burned this month
Two weeks after a Comer teen was severely burned by a fiery explosion in a trash fire, a Comer man was severely burned in a gasoline-stoked fire explosion in a brush fire, according to a Madison County sheriff’s report.
In both instances, the victims were transferred to burn units due to the seriousness of their injuries.
The most recent case occurred shortly after 7 p.m. Sept. 21 along Kudzu Road, a dead end road located off Georgia Highway 72 east of Comer.
A sheriff’s deputy arrived to find that Carlton Volunteer Fire Department personnel were on scene with the severely burned man, but had the fire under control.
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Fire officials reported to the deputy that the man was attempting to light a large brush pile with gasoline when he was burned. The man was transported by Life Flight to a burn unit.
“He had substantial burns,” sheriff’s Capt. Jimmy Patton said Monday.
Patton warned that setting fires with highly combustible gasoline is dangerous.
“That’s usually a mistake,” he said. “You put it on a brush pile and if you don’t burn it right away, it settles and will pretty much explode when you put fire to it.”
On Sept. 6, a teen and her boyfriend were burning trash outside her home when a container of a flammable substance in the trash pile exploded, sending fire into her face and body, according to a report.
Life Flight could not be used that evening due to weather conditions, but she was later transferred from an Athens hospital to a burn unit in Augusta, according to the sheriff’s office.
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Comer man transported by air to hospital after burns from brush fire
