SPFD: SP man attempting to remove Mustang gas tank seriously burned
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
Published: October 29, 2008
A Santa Paula man is recovering from serious burns he received several weeks ago when a light bulb burst while he was working to remove the fuel tank of a vehicle and a gasoline fire erupted.
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula Times
A Santa Paula man is recovering from serious burns he received several weeks ago when a light bulb burst while he was working to remove the fuel tank of a vehicle and a gasoline fire erupted. According to Santa Paula Fire Captain Steve Lazenby, the incident occurred Thursday, October 16 at about 9:50 p.m. on Yale Street.
Daniel Chavez, 24, of Santa Paula, “was working underneath the car in the street, replacing the fuel tank,” when the light bulb he was using to work by shattered. The spark of the exploding light bulb started a gasoline fire, which Lazenby said burned Chavez’s right arm “almost from his shoulder to the tips of his fingers.”
The victim was away from the vehicle when Santa Paula firefighters arrived on scene, where Lazenby said there was “fire in the gutter and the rear of the car was well involved” in flames.
Santa Paula Fire EMTs and ambulance paramedics treated Chavez for burns on the scene before he was transported Ventura County Medical Center. Chavez was later transferred to a burn center for treatment of his injury.
Lazenby said Chavez was working on an “older Mustang, not a classic but an older vehicle that he had just bought... he’d had it only about two weeks. He’d already had one problem and fixed that, and then the gas leak” that led Chavez to attempt replacing the fuel tank.
It is expected that Chavez will be released from the burn center later this week.
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