Face mask and hand sanitizer are a new normal in combating the coronavirus. However, for one mom near Austin Texas discovered that sometimes caution is needed when using these items.
As a mom, Katie Wise has been cautious to protect her family. Hence, she often uses hand sanitizers to kill bacteria and viruses that might be present. One night, the mother had a horrible experience when her sanitized hands caught fire.
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Hand Sanitizer Catches Fire
Inside Edition reported that Katie “was preparing a bedtime movie for herself and her two children” when the accident took place.
Apparently, she was disinfecting her hands with hand sanitizer. Then moments later, she lit a candle that caught fire in her arms and exploded the hand sanitizer bottle. And the fire burned her face, hands, legs, and stomach. Katie was left with terrible burns and was rushed to the hospital
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“I just remember them screaming and saying “Mom’s on fire, Mom’s on fire!” she told Inside Edition.
God IS Doing A New Thing In This Corona Crisis World
The hand sanitizer “created a shower of flammable liquid” that left even her house charred.
Katie is currently recovering from severe burns. Please pray that she will no longer be in pain as the burns covering most of her body is causing her constant and unrelenting pain.
High Alcohol Content Liquids Are Highly Flammable
According to Cnet.com, hand sanitizers have high alcohol levels and therefore is highly flammable.
“Often used on the go, hand sanitizers contain ethyl alcohol, isopropyl alcohol or both to kill bacteria and viruses on your hands. Alcohols have long been known to kill germs by denaturing the protective outer proteins of microbes and dissolving their membranes.”
Although it kills bacteria and viruses, its high-alcohol content is highly flameable that “it creates vapors which can be highly flammable when they turn from a liquid into a gas.”
A Warning From The Fire Department
Fire Marshall of Nassau County, New York, Michael Uttaro warns about the dangers of using hand sanitizers.
“In the drying process, that vapor is coming off of your hands. This is the time that you need to be most cautious that you’re not near any source of ignition,” he said.
Furthermore, the fire department warned how hand sanitizer is dangerous.
Reference: Shareably, Inside Edition