When the fire was finally extinguished, Dana Lindley’s skin kept cooking.
Within a second the Manhattan Beach resident had gone from making a pot of chili for the next day’s Super Bowl Sunday party to watching in horror as flames engulfed her mid-section.
“I reached for the chili powder and accidentally knocked a forgotten bottle of peppermint extract off of the shelf,” she recalled. “It shattered on the counter and on me. My stomach and pelvic area caught fire instantly. I thought, ‘Oh no. I’m on fire.’”
Lindley dropped and rolled on her kitchen floor, but the flames continued to burn the middle of her body. By the time she ran outside and started to roll on the grass, the fire had spread to her legs, baking her pajamas to her skin.
Her husband patted her down, put out the flames and called 911. Upon the dispatcher’s advice, he sprayed his wife with a hose.
The incident last February lasted less than a minute.
Lindley spent the next 32 days at Torrance Memorial Medical Center with third degree burns covering 25 percent of her body. She underwent three surgeries that painfully removed dead tissue and replaced it with skin grafted from her back.
Within a month of the accident, Manhattan Beach Fire Battalion Chief John Weber — who had just started the Manhattan Beach Firefighters’ Burn Foundation (MBFBF) — was sitting in Lindley’s family room.
“John came to my house and gave moral support to my family while I was in the hospital,” Lindley said. “He would sit in our house and talk about the healing process and what was ahead. He also continued to check in periodically with me.”
MBFBF members have since remained in touch with Lindley, who is now “back in fighting shape” and ran a 10K four months after the accident.
In March 2009, Weber came to the MBFD from the Bakersfield Fire Department, where he had become involved with its burn foundation after rescuing a boy who had been badly burned.
“When I came down here I didn’t see anything like it in the South Bay,” he said.
Weber gathered a handful of MBFD firefighters and in January launched the MBFBF, a non-profit organization that provides aid and financial support to burn victims and their families.
The organization raises money through donations and special events to supply survivors and their families with meals, clothing and temporary shelter, as well as fund burn survivor reunions, summer camps and retreats.
“It’s just a bunch of firemen who on their days off volunteer and give back,” Weber said. “It’s a positive thing for everybody.”
On Oct. 23, MBFBF raised $4,200 at its first annual Beach Tacos Fundraiser at the Neptunian Women’s Club in Manhattan Beach. Roughly 200 attendees munched on steak and chicken tacos while bidding on items donated by local businesses such as Spyder and Skechers. A signed basketball from the Lakers, two tickets to a USC vs. Oregon football game and dinner for four at the MBFD fire station were also raffled.
In August, the organization funded trips for two kids to a summer camp for burn victims.
When a Pismo Beach couple was burned in a plane crash on Catalina Island last month, MBFBF provided them with a hotel room, clothes, toiletries, food card, shoes — “things insurance doesn’t cover.”
Last month, the organization reached out to 2-year-old Jackson Lampe of Hermosa Beach, who was scalded after he climbed onto the kitchen counter and pulled down a cup of hot tea, spilling it on his face, chest and arm.
Weber showed up to the hospital the first night, providing moral support to the toddler’s parents and a nearby hotel room so they could stay close to the hospital during his stay.
“It was a traumatic day, to say the least,” said Jeff Lampe, Jackson’s father. “Right from the beginning, John and each member [of MBFBF] lent support to help us through a difficult time. They became like a second family to us, constantly in contact and stopping by the hospital.”
Weber put Lindley — who suffered a similar scald burn at the age of 2 — in touch with the Lampes.
“He thought it might be helpful to talk to someone who’s gone through it,” Lampe said. “We didn’t know what was ahead for healing. She spoke with us, answered our questions and helped put our minds at ease.”
Last month, the MBFBF donated a big-screen TV, a Nintendo Wii system, two cots and $1,000 to the Torrance Memorial Burn Center.
“We’re hoping [the Wii] will get burn patients out of bed so they can forget about their burns,” said Erin Kill, a registered nurse at the Burn Center. “They can develop contractures of their ligaments because they’re not using their limbs out of pain and the fear of having pain. If they can forget about the pain, they won’t tend to experience it as much.”
Kill said that scalding from hot drinks is the number one cause of burns on toddlers.
She said that “hot” should be one of the first words parents teach kids. She also suggested setting water heaters between 115 and 120 degrees to minimize scalds from faucets.
Since Jackson’s accident, his parents have installed a baby gate restricting his access to the kitchen.
Lindley — who has permanent scars from her navel to her knees — has rearranged her kitchen so that the spices and extracts, which are often flammable, are far from the stove.
This month she will run a half marathon.
“John’s very passionate about this and is working hard to get it off the ground,” she said. “They really helped me and my family, and have found a way to reach out to the community and remind people about safety.”
MBFBF T-shirts can be purchased at the Manhattan Beach Fire Department, 400 15th St., for $15 for men’s shirts and $10 for women’s shirts. All proceeds go to burn victims and their families. For more information or to donate, visit www.mbfirefighters.com. ER
