Stanley Beer was shocked to the core when the carpet cleaner spray he was using in his campervan burst into flames yesterday.
"It was terrible. The flames shot up and singed my hair, burnt off my eyelashes and wrecked my trousers."
He said he was so terrified he had backed out of
the van and literally fallen out of the door on to the ground.
"I just wanted to get out of there the chemical fumes were so bad I could hardly breath.
"Even the neighbour could smell them," he said.
After a quick couple of breaths outside, he went back into the van, armed with the fire extinguisher he kept by the door.
"God, I just couldn't believe those flames and the smell. You know, I was so lucky I was wearing longjohns under my trousers, or my legs would have been really burned."
Mr Beer's campervan is parked in the driveway of his sister's house in Gonville and when the spray exploded his nephew had come rushing out of the house to see what had happened.
"He took me to the hospital for a check-up, because they were really toxic fumes. The doctor said to watch how I was overnight, and if I had any problems with my breathing, I had to go straight back. I'm not feeling too bad now, though."
Because yesterday had dawned fine and clear, Mr Beer had decided to give his van a bit of a spruce-up.
"I decided it was time the carpet was cleaned back to its original cream colour, so I'd bought a can of carpet spray cleaner from the supermarket."
After going back to the supermarket to complain about the product, he was advised to call the company that makes the well known spray.
Mr Beer said [the company] was very upset and said it had never had anything like it before with the spray.
"They are flying someone down from Auckland to see me."
The company's marketing manager was due to fly into Wanganui this morning.
"She's coming to see the damage and to talk to me about it.
"They are not very happy at all about this. It could cause something really dangerous."
