Fireball engulfs builder’s arm as he uses foam to plug mouse holes

The wife of a builder whose arm was engulfed in a ball of flames as he tried to mouse-proof his kitchen today said “everyone is lucky to be alive” after the DIY disaster.

Darren O’Hagan, 35, had used eight cans of expanding foam to plug mice holes under his units in Acton, unwittingly filling his flat with flammable propellant.

Ten minutes into the DIY job, flames seemingly spontaneously erupted under the cooker, snaking up his right arm and leaving him with second-degree burns.

Wife Kelli, 33, who had also been in the kitchen at the time making Sunday lunch, said: “It was like a dragon under the cooker blowing an orange ball of flame out and the expanding foam droplets were all over the kitchen floor like marshmallows on fire.”

Mrs O’Hagan, who works at Charing Cross Hospital in Fulham, was terrified the whole top floor of the Victorian terraced house would go up in flames and desperately doused the kitchen in water before firefighters arrived minutes later.

The mother-of-three said: “He was just shouting ‘Get the kids out,’ who were all upstairs. We didn’t know what was going on and we thought the cooker was going to explode.

“It was pretty nasty. Everyone is lucky to be alive, to be honest.”

Mr O’Hagan was taken to hospital and treated in a burns unit for three hours before being discharged the same day. His wife said he had been a “soldier” and had since returned to work at a timber yard in Acton, where he is a manager. Mr O’Hagan said he “just wanted to forget about it”.

The London Fire Brigade believes that gas emitted from the foam as it dried out formed an invisible cloud which could have been ignited by an exposed wire or when the gas cooker was turned on.

Two fire engines and around 10 firefighters rushed to the scene at 12.50pm a week last Sunday.

A London Fire Brigade spokesman said: “Always read safety warnings on the side of aerosol cans and observe the safety advice closely. Areas where expanding foam is drying out should always be very well ventilated.”

Mrs O’Hagan said the couple would not be using expanding foam again to mouse-proof their home, but would be getting a cat to patrol their flat.