Hand sanitiser catches fire on Texas mom, severely burning 18% of her body

  • 19 Sep - 25 Sep, 2020
  • Mag The Weekly
  • Mag Files

A single mom in Texas is warning others to practice hand sanitiser safety after hers caught fire, leaving her with severe burns on her face and body. Kate Wise put her three daughters to bed one night, then applied hand sanitiser and went to light a candle at home. As she did, the fire somehow came into contact with the hand sanitiser, leaving her body “consumed in flames” in a matter of several second. “It can be something as small as lighting a candle. Because of the hand sanitiser, it just lit my whole… everywhere I had hand sanitiser, it just lit my hand with fire,” she said. A GoFundMe page organised to help cover her medical expenses said the incident caused a “bomb-like explosion,” and left Wise with second- and third-degree burns from head to toe. While her two youngest daughters headed to a neighbor’s house to seek help, Wise was able to remove her burning clothes and get her other daughter, who has disabilities, and her pets out of the house as the flames spread. Wise was transported to a hospital in nearby Austin, with burns on 18 per cent of her body. “What appears to have happened is she used hand sanitizer and then went to light a candle – and hand sanitiser is flammable,” says Will Hampton, a spokesperson for the Round Rock Fire Department. “This stuff is at least 62 per cent alcohol, so folks need to be careful.”

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