Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 5, 1993 TAG: 9307050052
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"She treasured her hair," her mother, Sherry Spencer, said. "It was long, kind of thin, but down past her little shoulders."
Spencer spoke by phone last week from a room at the Burn Center at the University of Virginia Hospital. Nurses had sedated Jessica for her daily bath, where they would scrape burned skin from her head and limbs, then wash and re-bandage the wounds.
"Her hair's got to be cut now," Spencer said. "There are short pieces and long pieces. When she gets out, we'll have to cut it."
On June 24, Jessica's father, Charles, was in the back yard of the family's Vinton home, burning the broken handle off of a shovel. To speed the process, he used gasoline, pouring it on the handle from a plastic cup.
Fire from the handle ignited the cup, still in his hand. He threw the cup back over his shoulder to keep it away from two of his children who were standing in front of him.
He didn't realize Jessica - the youngest of five - was standing behind him.
Thirty five percent of her body was burned. First- and second-degree burns cover her face, shoulders, arms, chest and legs. Her hair is a tangle of burned patches. Her eyes are swollen shut. So, nearly, is her throat. She developed pneumonia Tuesday. She had the first of several skin graft operations Thursday.
"It's really hard to talk about it," Sherry Spencer said.
The accident brought the number of children injured in mishaps involving gasoline in the Roanoke area to five in the past two months.
The same evening Jessica was burned, a 4-year-old boy in the Hollins area played in a van while his father worked on its engine. The man had poured gasoline in a plastic cup and was using it to get the carburetor started.
The cup turned over, spilling gasoline on the van's floorboard, where the boy sat. When the engine backfired, the gasoline ignited, burning the boy on the lower part of his body.
On May 6, a 14-year-old Roanoke County boy was mopping up gasoline that had spilled in the basement of his home when a gas heater ignited it, badly burning his feet.
Three weeks later, two 13-year-old boys in Salem were sniffing gasoline moments before the fumes caught fire and burned them.
"This is more children injured with gasoline in a short period of time than I know of in the history of the Roanoke Valley," said Chief Donald Gillispie, Roanoke County fire marshal. "And it's all the result of improper, careless use and handling."
Gasoline is like dynamite, Gillispie said. Given the right conditions, it can be very destructive, very flammable.
"People really need to be cautious about use of gasoline," he said. "With gasoline, a big red flag ought to go up."
Hot, muggy weather can make gasoline's properties very volatile, Gillispie said. Gas fumes can vaporize rapidly, he said. They can ignite even quicker.
Gasoline should be stored in proper containers, Gillispie said. It is best to keep it away from dwellings, particularly out of a basement.
"Across this country, numerous incidents annually occur involving improper use or handling of gasoline,' Gillispie said. "People responsible for handling and storing it know the potential. It's the layperson who doesn't realize the dangers associated with gasoline if it's mishandled or -stored.
"My heart goes out to these children."
\ Chris Stull, chief of the Vinton Rescue Squad, is accustomed to leaving the crew hall to respond to emergency calls involving accident victims. Rarely do victims come to him, he said.
But on the evening of June 24, Charles Spencer showed up at the crew hall carrying his daughter Jessica wrapped in an old rug. He had used the rug to put out flames that, minutes earlier, covered her from face to kneecaps. Her breath smelled of gasoline.
"She was stable, talking to us," Stull said. "But there was a high level of concern."
Jessica was taken to Community Hospital, then to Roanoke Memorial to be transported by helicopter to Charlottesville.
Sherry Spencer has taken leave from her job as a packing inspector to stay with Jessica. She says she plans to stay as long as necessary, possibly two months.
The accident has shaken other family members. An uncle placed donation cans at several convenience stores to raise money for medical expenses. The family has no medical insurance but has applied for Medicaid assistance.
Ruth Spencer - Jessica's paternal grandmother - cried as she described her granddaughter's burned body, swathed in bandages.
"They've got her all wrapped up," she said. "They have to completely remake her jaws. There's a tube down her throat because of the swelling. She swallowed some of the flame."
For Charles Spencer, coping has been "rough."
"It's pretty hard to deal with," he said. "By being there, having to smother the fire out on her, it makes it rough on you. It's always running through my mind."
by CNB