Man catches fire after applying sunscreen

A Stow man says he was nearly killed after applying sunscreen. Standing in front of his barbecue grill, Brett Sigworth says it was only a second before his body was engulfed in flames. “I went into complete panic mode and screamed,” he says. “I’ve never experienced pain like that in my life.” He was at his lakefront home entertaining friends when he applied Banana Boat sport aerosol sunscreen.

He says, “I sprayed on the spray-on sunscreen, and then rubbed it on for a few seconds. I walked over to my grill, took one of the holders to move some of the charcoal briquettes around and all of a sudden it went up my arm.” Brett says his body was on fire, “it went wherever the block went.”



Ten days later, his skin is still healing. The worst of the burns are around his neck. Pictures from the hospital burn unit show the extent of his second degree burns on his chest, ear and back, where you can see the lines where he sprayed the sunscreen. “There is no warning that says this product is flammable when applied to your skin or for a period of time when applied to skin,” he says.

The warnings only read, “flammable, don’t use near heat, flame or while burning” but nothing about once it’s applied. “I think if people were told this is flammable for two minutes on your skin afterward, people wouldn’t use it,” he says. And that’s why he is speaking out to prevent this from happening again.

With news video.