Throughout the country, citizens are using various cleaning and health care products to prevent the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19). Experts recommend thorough handwashing, but hand sanitizer is a suitable alternative if you don’t have access to soap and running water during the pandemic.
But it looks like consumers need to be careful what brand of hand sanitizer they purchase, especially after a woman in Texas was hospitalized after
the hand sanitizer she was using caught fire.
Hand sanitizer bottle explodedAccording to local CBS affiliate KHOU-TV, Kate Wise suffered severe burns on her whole body after an incident involving hand sanitizer.
According to Wise, a resident of Round Rock, Texas, the incident occurred on August 30, Sunday after she applied an off-brand hand sanitizer that she had bought to protect herself and her three daughters from the coronavirus.
After using the hand sanitizer, however, her hand caught fire when she lit a candle. According to Wise, the flames from the candle made contact with the sanitizer’s bottle, which then exploded.
Within seconds of the explosion, the fire had spread not just to her face, but to the rest of her body. At this point, she says her two youngest daughters ran to the neighbors to get help.
Eventually, Wise was able to remove her burning clothes and get her disabled daughter and pets out of their house. Recalling what happened, Wise warned that doing something as simple as lighting a candle can be risky when flammable hand sanitizer is involved.
The Round Rock Fire Department is investigating the cause of the fire.
The rough and costly road to recoveryTo help cover her medical expenses, a friend of Wise, Kathryn Bonesteel, set up a
GoFundMe page.
On September 13, Sunday, Wise posted on the page to thank generous donors. She shared that she is now currently home recovering before her next surgery, which involves skin grafting.
Bonesteel has since warned others
about purchasing off-brand products.
