What was meant to be a fun summer evening turned into a nightmare for one family, after a backyard fire pit accident left a mother of two with devastating third-degree burns and cost them their home.
Emma Colwell was enjoying a night with her husband Andrew and friends when a sudden gust of wind blew lighter fluid from the fire pit directly onto her body, engulfing her in flames.
“I was ripping all my clothes off,” Emma recalled. “My husband kept turning me over, trying to put the flames out.”
Panicked and in shock, she ran inside, where Andrew rushed her into the shower in a desperate attempt to douse the flames. “I looked down and saw skin all over the bath,” Emma said. “I was in a state of shock.”
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As smoke quickly filled the house, Andrew helped her escape—but it was already too late to save their home.
“I thought I was screaming for help at the end of the driveway,” Emma said. “But people later told me nothing was coming out. They said my skin was melting off. That’s when it hit me—my life would never be the same.”
Emma was rushed to the ICU, where doctors confirmed she had sustained third-degree burns on nearly 30% of her body, with the worst injuries on her back and legs. These burns—among the most severe—damage all layers of the skin and can extend to muscle and fat, according to the Mayo Clinic.
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In the following weeks, Emma underwent 10 skin graft surgeries and spent a month in intensive care. “We didn’t know if Emma was going to make it,” Andrew said.
By the time she was stable enough to be discharged, the family’s home was gone.
“We lost everything,” Emma said. “There are good days and bad days. Some days, I worry about more surgeries. I never imagined something like this could happen. It happened in an instant—and I could’ve died.”
Despite the trauma, Emma says the experience has given her a new outlook on life. “It made me realize who and what truly matters. I’m not taking anything for granted anymore.”
