Redding: 2 year old and father burned by gasoline fire - RC Fuel

UPDATED: Father and son burned in fuel explosion

By Record Searchlight staff
Originally published 06:46 p.m., January 6, 2009
Updated 07:52 p.m., January 6, 2009

Dylan Darling / Record Searchlight

A Redding man had a fire cauldron made from one end of an empty Vietnam-era bomb casing. Nearby flammable liquid exploded tonight, injuring the man and his 2-year-old son.

Dylan Darling / Record Searchlight

Investigators at the scene of tonight's flash fire that injured a 2-year-old boy and his father on De Moll Drive in Redding.

A 25-year-old man and his 2-year-old son were burned tonight when fuel spilled near a fire exploded outside a home on De Moll Drive in Redding.

Neighbors identified the victims as Justin Cornell and Cody Cornell, who live at the house south of Enterprise High School.

Redding fire investigator Dean Herzberg would not confirm the identities, but said the victims were father and son.

Initial reports said the man was burned over most of his body. Rescue workers later reported that he had suffered burns on his chest, face, neck and back. The boy, they reported, had burns on his face, head, neck and ears and his eyelashes were burned away by the blast.

The two were taken to Mercy Medical Center in Redding. Information on their condition was not immediately available.

Neighbors said that Justin Cornell used a fire cauldron made from one end of an empty Vietnam-era bomb casing. He used the fires for warmth while he worked on his vintage pickup in the driveway, the neighbors said.

Shonn Schmidt, 16, who lives down the block, said witnesses told him that somehow a can of fuel for a remote-controlled car had been kicked over near the fire cauldron and that the fuel exploded.

The explosion was reported just after 6 p.m.

Herzberg said he wanted to interview the burned man in the hospital before releasing additional information on the explosion.

"We really don't know much at this point," he said.

Source: Redding.com - Link

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Rescue crews are responding this evening to a report of a child and a man who were burned by gasoline at De Moll Drive in Redding.

The boy is about 2 years old and the man is about 25 years old, dispatch reports said.

Further details weren't immediately available.

Source: Redding.com - Link