Mum’s warning after freak gas burner explosion at birthday party nearly killed daughter, 5, and left guests with horror burns
A MUM is warning of the danger of decorative gas burners after she and her five-year-old daughter were badly burned in a freak birthday party accident. Kate Collins and her daughter, Eva, were engulfed by a fireball which instantly set fire to their hair and clothes, leaving them with horrible burns. Kate said today […]
A MUM is warning of the danger of decorative gas burners after she and her five-year-old daughter were badly burned in a freak birthday party accident.
Kate Collins and her daughter, Eva, were engulfed by a fireball which instantly set fire to their hair and clothes, leaving them with horrible burns.
Kate said today she wanted to warn others about the dangers of the burners, which are used outdoors to keep you warm at night.
She said: “If we stop this happening to even one more family it will have been worth it.”
The mum and her little daughter Eva were at their friend’s home in Perth, Australia, on April 27, when the host went to refill a table-top burner.
But suddenly the liquid ethanol exploded.
Kate told Nine News: “The first thing I remember we were just sitting there chatting and the fireball came out, my clothes and hair were on fire.
“I ran into the house. I dropped and rolled because that is what you are taught as a child.
“But, because it was liquid flame, it wouldn’t go out, it just kept on reigniting.
“It was scary so I stripped my clothes off and was just patting at my hair trying to get the flames out.”
We were just sitting there chatting and the fireball came out, my clothes and hair were on fire
Mum Kate Collins
When the flames eventually went out, Kate said she heard someone screaming that her daughter had been burned.
She said: “Someone had a hose running and a bucket and a scoop and I just kept ladling water onto her until the paramedics arrived.
“Then I passed out, everything is pretty hazy after that.”
Kate was taken to the Fiona Stanley Hospital and Eva to the Perth Children’s Hospital.
The party host, who had been refilling the burner, and another woman were also burned.
But Eva came off worst, suffering burns to 20 per cent of her body, including third-degree burns down her left arm and torso.
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Mrs Collins has similarly severe burns to her legs arms and hands.
Five days after the accident, Eva’s turned septic.
She was then treated with intravenous antibiotics and to the family’s relief, her condition stabilised and her life was saved.
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