Burned Va. Firefighter Recovering After Bonfire Blast

The firefighter who suffered first- and second-degree burns to his arms, chest, neck and face when a bonfire pile he was readying for an annual high school homecoming event unexpectedly caught fire and exploded is expected to spend the weekend recovering at home.

Chase Hopkins, 27, was one of five firefighters from the Marion Volunteer Fire Department who opted to help Marion Senior High School with its annual homecoming bonfire, said Ken Heath, a spokesman for the town. He and Lt. Matthew May were on the 8-foot-tall pile of pallets and other burnable material, getting everything ready for the fire, when a road flare held by Dale Dunford, who was standing 5 feet away, ignited some vapor in the air, Heath said.

The instant that happened, the pile caught fire and exploded.

May jumped off the pile into a ditch, but Hopkins was surrounded by flames, Heath said.

The other firefighters, April Shipley and Roger Tilson, immediately began emergency medical treatment and called the Marion Life Saving Crew.

Hopkins was taken to Smyth County Community Hospital and then airlifted to the burn center at Wake Forest Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem, N.C. He was doing well Friday afternoon.

"I've spoken with Chase this morning and he's in good spirits," Fire Chief Todd May said in a statement released Friday. "We continue to ask the community to surround him and his family with prayers for a speedy recovery."

May refused treatment at the scene and Dunford was taken to the community hospital, where he was treated for superficial and first-degree burns to his arm. He was released from the hospital soon after.

Several hundred people were in the parking lot where the bonfire was staged, Heath said, and a Little League football game was going on at the high school football field. People in the stadium said they heard the explosion, Heath said.

The Virginia State Police arson team was called to investigate the fire, which Heath said should not have happened, based on what firefighters believed to be in the burn pile.

"An explosion is not a normal reaction from the materials used," he said.

He said diesel fuel and motor oil had been put on the materials, ready to burn, but neither of those would have produced vapors that would have caught fire. Gasoline and lighter fluid produce flammable vapors, he said, which is why the fire department doesn't use them and discourages others from using them.

"That's why it was a real mystery," he said. "Nothing we used would ignite the vapors."

Usually, the road flare, which Dunford held, would be thrown on the fire from a safe distance, Heath said.

The crowd was kept safely away from the blaze and no others were injured, he said.

Copyright 2012 - Bristol Herald Courier, Va.

McClatchy-Tribune News Service