A Florida mother-of-five has died after suffering burns over nearly 100% of her body in a horrific fire pit accident within the family’s backyard that also sent her 11-year-old son to the hospital.
Nicole Foltz, 38, and her husband, Jeff, began a hearth last month to maintain the bugs away at their home in Tarpon Springs, where they were hanging out with friends, WFTS reported.
Jeff said that the hearth fizzled at one point while he stepped inside and Nicole tried to reignite it.
“I had just gone inside and to my knowledge, she decided to try to maintain the hearth going, keep the fun going, and she or he put one other go browsing it and there wasn’t much flame in any respect,” he told Fox 13 News.
“But she just, I assume, felt to pour a little bit gas on it, and it might reignite, and it did. I assume it must’ve traveled the gas stream as much as the gas can, and it exploded in her hands,” Jeff explained.
He told WFTS that his panicked wife “actually stopped, dropped and rolled like you’re purported to.”
Despite her effort, she was overwhelmed d by the flames and suffered burns on almost 100% of her body. She died three days after the Nov. 14 accident.
Their 11-year-old son, Jeffrey, suffered second and third-degree burns over about 40% of his body and spent 12 days within the hospital, in line with the outlet.
“I never left his side within the hospital, which is difficult, especially because I feel bad for other children there. I can see the way it is to not have anyone that could be there for you by your bedside 24/7,” Foltz told WFTS.
The boy recently returned home, where he continues to recuperate from the severe injuries.
“He’s staying pretty strong. I’m sure the entire crew there was really surprised to listen to that two days after we got home he was walking,” his dad told Fox 13.
The tragic mom was a longtime server and manager at The Tarpon Tavern, in line with a GoFundMe account for the family.
“Her radiant smile all the time filled the room. She was all the time there for everybody — there for each relative, every friend, every customer, every coworker, every birthday, every anniversary, day-after-day for each one,” fundraiser organizer Dan Jenkin wrote.
“We’ll miss Nicole, but our memories of her are everlasting,” he added.
Tavern owner Ania Bozena also remembered her loved worker.
“She absolutely loved her work where everybody adored her not only for her exertions, but in addition personality and friendship,” she told Fox 13.
“She was a loyal wife to her amazing husband Jeff. But most of all, she was an important mother who all the time put her family first,” Bozena added.
On Friday night, Tarpon Tavern and sister eatery The Bistro donated 10% of its proceeds to the devastated family.
Foltz described Nicole to WFTS as “throughout among the best, real people. She had a fierceness to her. Everybody loved her.”
He urged people to find out about and practice fire safety.
“I don’t need to examine anyone else’s family having to undergo this. It’s unimaginable,” he told WFTS. “It’s just one in all those senseless acts you don’t expect to occur in your loved ones … gasoline will not be a joke relating to fire. You have got to watch out or simply don’t do it in any respect.”
He said the family will turn the hearth pit right into a bird bath, which Nicole all the time wanted within the backyard.