A Sad Scary Day

It was Sunday June 1, 2003. The family was at Up North Camping for the weekend. Nicole turned 11 on this day. The day before we all went to the carnival, Nicole and I had our picture taken and put on a banner.

We had fun. Today we were going out to breakfast, then heading back home. I was inside the camper sweeping and getting the last minute things packed so we could leave when I heard a HUGE boom. I looked up and out the front door of the camper and saw Nicole running past the door and she was on FIRE!

I threw the broom and ran out the door screaming Nicole's name and chasing her. She was running into the woods taking off her clothes. My husband was right behind her and he grabbed her and I ran for the hoses and he brought her over to the water well and we were both frantic and dousing her with water and asking repeatedly "can you see, can you hear?" Nicole was crying and not talking.

Finally we get the fire out, which only took seconds, however felt like years. Her eyebrows, eyelashes, and bangs were all gone! Her face and legs were really red. She didn't seem to be hurt too badly, but scared to death as the rest of us were!

When things calmed down a bit I learned what had happened. My son was burning up the rest of the trash before we left, he poured fuel oil onto the fire right from the five gallon drum...when he poured it it caused a vacuum and it blew up. Nicole was sitting directly across from him and her hair was wet (she just got out of the shower) she had a coat on with shorts. the fire landed on her face. My son was not hurt, although the hair on his legs was gone! My husband knew what my son was doing so when he heard the explosion he didn't look at Nicole he looked at Michael, it wasn't until I screamed that he knew she was hurt.

Nicole did not stop drop and roll, she did however run and start taking off clothes. Nicole had some very bad marks, however she only has one small scar and you cannot see it unless you know it is there! Remarkable. This all took place on Nicole's 11th birthday! We all thanked God that day for his presence in our lives. My son was traumatized for several days over what happened. We were very lucky that it turned out the way it did.