Alaska News

A Massachusetts man accidentally caught on fire while putting on sunscreen (VIDEO)

Brett Sigworth was enjoying the sun and grilling at his lakeside home in Stow, Massachusetts with friends when something went terribly wrong.

Sigworth caught on fire after applying Banana Boat aerosol sunscreen, CBS News Boston reported.

"I sprayed on the spray-on sunscreen, and then rubbed it on for a few seconds," Sigworth told CBS. "I walked over to my grill, took one of the holders to move some of the charcoal briquettes around and all of a sudden it went up my arm."

Sigworth's friends and girlfriend put out the flames on his body, but he is still recovering from second-degree burns all over his body as a result of the incident, according to CBS News. Doctors said that if the flames had been put out a few seconds later he would have suffered from third- or fourth-degree burns.

Though the warnings on aerosol cans caution users to keep them away from heat and flames, Sigworth said that he did not expect the sunscreen to be flammable while applied to skin. He has plans to contact Banana Boat to put clearer warnings on their bottles.

"I had no idea," he said. "It was so scary and I just wouldn't want to see it happen to anyone else."

According to the National Fire Protection Association, US fire departments responded to an estimated 1,331,500 fires in 2010, which resulted in 17,720 civilian fire-related injuries.

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