A 44-year-old man suffered burns to his head and upper body when he threw gasoline onto a fire to help burn debris behind a Snellville home Wednesday afternoon, authorities said.
Firefighters arrived on the scene in the 2000 block of Killian Hill Road just before 5 p.m. after a resident reported an outbuilding on fire, Gwinnett County Fire Department spokesman Eric Eberly said.
Firefighters found a "control burn pile" in the backyard, and a man told authorities that his son was severely injured while working there, Eberly said.
The injured man had second-degree burns to his head, upper body and upper extremities, Eberly said. He was treated by firefighter paramedics before being taken to Grady Memorial Hospital's burn center in Atlanta, where he is listed in stable condition.
Crews extinguished the fire, which an investigator ruled as accidental, "with the cause being misuse of flammable liquids," Eberly said.
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