A nurse gave a grim warning about the dangers of fire pits and barbecues after she was almost burned in a garden accident, making her skin ‘melt’.
Emma Colwell, 45, from Cheshire, had sat outside with her husband Andrew and a friend when the group decided to light the fireplace while the sun went down.
After it was used safely all summer and knowing to keep her distance from open flames, Mrs. Colwell stood a few meters away while her husband collapsed lighter fuel into the bowl.
The mother of two turned around to pull her vest-all like a sudden gust of wind blew the flammable liquid towards her and ignited her clothes in an instant.
“I just panicked and ran into the house – I was literally on fire,” she said.
‘I tore off all my clothes and then my nurse headed in. I jumped on the couch and started rubbing my back.
“My husband continued to turn me around and tried to put the flames out.”
Eventually the flames enough disappeared for Mr. Colwell to wear his wife up to the shower when the house started filling with smoke.
Emma remained behind with sizzling third -degree burns after a freak windstream saw her flamed in flames when her husband tried to light their fireplace
She was rushed to the hospital when she was admitted to the ICU
The burns covered 29 percent of her body, so that her skin ‘melts’ her body
“I looked down and saw the skin everywhere in the bath. I was in a shock state, “she said.
But only a few moments later the nurse was awakened from her shock -induced state when her husband returned to save her from their rapidly burning house.
“I thought I was shouting at the end of the ride for help, but then people told me nothing came out.
“They said my skin went away and reality struck me: my life would never be the same again.”
Mrs. Colwell was then rushed to Whiston Hospital, where she was admitted to the Intensive Care department (ICU) with third-degree burns on her back, legs and arms.
At this stage all three layers – epidermis, dermis and subcutis – are damaged, causing tissue to expose.
Almost 30 percent of the nurse’s body was damaged by the fire, so she had unbearable pain.
She remembers that she spoke with her friends and family who told her that it was really ‘touch and go’.
Emma’s husband, Andrew (left) donated the lighting fluid into the fireplace when a sudden gust of wind blew the fuel over Emma
Emma spent a month in the hospital and underwent ten skin transplants
Two mother said she was in a shock when her skin fell off her body while she was in the shower
“We didn’t know if Emma would make it,” her husband added.
After having undergone ten skin transplants in the course of a month, Mrs. Colwell was finally fired from the hospital, but unable to return home in view of the extensive fire damage.
“We lost everything,” she said. “But I just knew I couldn’t let it be beaten. Now I have good days and bad days where I am worried about further operations.
“I never thought something like that would happen to me. It happened in the click of a finger and I could have died. So now I live every day as if it’s my last.
“It made me aware of who and what is important in my life, not considering nothing for granted.”
Now the nurse – who has since installed her house with fire extinguishers – is encouraging people to stay vigilant around burning and barbecues, especially the more it gets warmer.
She says: “If you are going to get a fire place, receive a log burners or a logbook that is enclosed.”
However, some experts are not even that wood stoves are the safer option.
After he was fired from the hospital, Emma could not return for months because of the extensive fire damage, so her kitchen went up in flames
The nurse said her open living room, the kitchen had disappeared, just like a study, and a bedroom and said her living room was ‘destroyed’
The nurse is now insisting on people to stay vigilant at the summer barbecues and not to be taken for granted
Earlier this week, experts warned that log burners could be behind a large number of serious health problems.
These include heart conditions, lung cancer and even damage to the kidneys, liver, brain and nervous system.
This is because log burners release contaminating substances such as ultrafine particles, fine particles, black carbon and carbon monoxide.
It is estimated that 3.2 million people die every year worldwide early due to the air pollution of households as a result of incomplete fuel burning – including 237,000 children under the age of five.
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