A Texas woman was admitted to the ICU for severe burns after her hand sanitizer caught fire while she was lighting a candle.
Kate Wise, who lives in Round Rock, Texas, told KHOU 11 that she put on hand sanitizer Sunday, which she uses to protect her and her children from the coronavirus.
However, when Wise went to light a candle, her her hand caught fire. (RELATED: FDA Asks Hand Sanitizer Manufacturers To Make Products ‘Unpalatable’ To Discourage Ingestion)
“It can be something as small as lighting a candle. Because of the hand sanitizer, it just lit my whole…everywhere I had hand sanitizer on my hand, it just lit my hand with fire,” Wise told KHOU 11.
Coming up at 6– Hear from a #RoundRock woman near #Austin as she recovers in the ICU. Kate says the hand sanitizer she had put on caught fire while trying to light a candle. It left her with severe burns. #KHOU11 pic.twitter.com/BknOZEta1E
— David Gonzalez (@DavidGonzKHOU) September 3, 2020
She said the flames then touched the bottle of off-brand hand sanitizer and exploded.
“And it obviously went all over my face. And, in like a matter of five seconds, my whole body was just consumed in flames,” she said.
Wise said her two youngest daughters went to a neighbor’s to get help while she stripped out of her burning clothes. Wise said she then grabbed her disabled daughter and pets and ran out of the house.
An investigation into the fire remains ongoing.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says some hand sanitizers that are alcohol based contain ethyl alcohol, which can evaporate into an ignitable vapor and is considered very flammable.