Bonfire gone awry

30-year-old catches fire after man pours gas into traditional Lag Baomer bonfire
By Raanan Ben-Zur

ROSH HA'AYIN - A 30-year-old man was badly burned in Rosh Ha'ayin, east of Tel Aviv, Thursday when another man apparently attempted to light a Lag Baomer bonfire near him.

Reports said a person who participated in a Lag Baomer bonfire poured gas over the fire, which consequently spread toward the victim, who burst into flames as the stunned crowd looked on.

The shocked man attempted to put out the fire by rolling in sand, but to no avail. A number of people on hand poured sand and water over him until the blaze was finally contained.

A Magen David Adom emergency services ambulance was summoned to the scene.

“When we arrived the man was lying in the sand, burned and squirming in agonizing pain,” paramedic Ronen Lazar said. “We could tell he was suffering from burns to 50 percent of his body – his chest, arms, back and face. We injected him with morphine to ease the pain, and after treating him on the spot we evacuated him in serious condition to Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva.”

2 people burned in separate incident

The burn victim’s wife, who was present when her husband caught fire, said her husband approached the fire in order to revive it when another man poured gas over it, creating a big flame that struck her husband.

Senior Fire Department official Menachem Caspi of the Petah Tikva fire station estimated that when the gas was poured onto the fire, the resulting gas fumes set the victim ablaze.

In another incident, a 30-year-old man and a 10-year-old girl were moderately burned in Ashdod when a man threw flammable material into a bonfire. The two were treated by Magen David Adom paramedics.