Fuel strike: Woman disfigured as stored petrol explodes in her kitchen

A mother was fighting for her life today after petrol she was pouring into a container ignited in her kitchen, causing severe burns to her body.

The horrific accident is thought to be the first since Cabinet minister Francis Maude advised motorists to fill a jerry can with fuel before the threatened tanker drivers’ strike. It came as:

The sense of a crisis running out of the Government’s control was heightened by the appalling injuries to Diane Hill, 46, at her home in York.

Mrs Hill had been decanting petrol in her kitchen, where a gas cooker was on, and suffered 40 per cent burns to her body as it ignited.

She was taken to Pinderfields Hospital, Wakefield, with “serious and significant burns” after the explosion asshe transferred the fuel from one can to another last night. Neighbour Margot Johnston, 86, said Mrs Hill’s two daughters, Lauren, 23, and Grace, 18, were in the garden and her husband Mark was at work when the petrol ignited.

She said: “I saw flames coming from someone and somebody running into the garden. I’m in shock. I didn’t see anything this bad during the war.”

Fire station manager Lee Smith said: “The lady was cooking the family’s evening meal and was decanting petrol from a jerry can into a glass jug.”

He said vapours from the petrol were ignited by the gas cooker, causing Mrs Hill to drop the jug and become “engulfed in flames”. He added: “Her clothes were burned off by the fire.”

Her daughters tried to rip any remaining clothes from her body before firefighters arrived and her husband got home as paramedics were treating her in the back garden.

She has significant burns on her upper body, mainly her back and arms and is now in a “critical but stable” condition in hospital where relatives are keeping a bedside vigil.

The accident comes two days after Cabinet Office minister Mr Maude was slapped down by the fire brigade and government colleagues for his advice that “a bit of extra fuel in a jerry can is a sensible precaution to take”. The advice was later withdrawn. Peter Hudson of the North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service reiterated warnings about handling and storing petrol and said: “In domestic situations fuel containers must not be stored in living accommodation such as kitchens, living rooms and bedrooms or under staircases.”