Dec. 3, 2018—A man suffered serious injuries on his neck and face from an oil fire at Dave's Friendly Service in Washington, N.J., according to the Daily Record. Additionally, three other men were injured in the fire but did not require medical attention, sgt. Jerry Magyar of the Washington Township Police Department told the Daily Record.
The unidentified man was airlifted by helicopter to a hospital, the Daily Record reports. The owner, Dave Read, told the Daily Record that he got a call from police and arrived at the scene after the accident occurred.
Read said that the men had been using a torch to remove an old hydraulic lift when the flame ignited the oil. According to the Daily Record, Read said the flame was allegedly 20 feet high.
"They were torching the lift out and the oil exploded kind of like a flash fire," Read said to the Daily Record. "He got burnt pretty—I'm not going to say horrible—but bad enough: face and hair, eyebrows. He had trouble seeing. He didn't look too good."
The workers were subcontractors, Read told the Daily Record, and he did not identify the name of the company that was installing the lift.
"We're trying to reschedule and trying to get things organized at this point but we're still open," Read said to the Daily Record. "We can't use that one bay. Not until the insurance company decides what they want to do."
