A mother was still in the hospital Tuesday after she survived being burned in a kitchen explosion in Imperial Beach last week.
Pointing to her bandaged head and neck, Diana Hernandez says the worst of her burn wounds were suffered on her ear, neck and chest. She is now forever scarred after surviving a fire that gutted her apartment on Georgia Street.
Hernandez says she started cooking breakfast for her kids just before 7 a.m. on Nov. 12. When she tried to light the stove, she says she heard it clicking. So when it didn’t light, she said she grabbed a lighter to spark it, and that’s when disaster struck.
“That’s when I feel the explosion. My chest and my face. My hair being on fire,” Hernandez said.
She says she ran to the bathroom and extinguished herself in the shower, after suffering second- and third-degree burns. But she can’t wash away the worry she has for her 12-year-old daughter.
“My daughter look at me when I be on fire, how she can be emotionally,” Hernandez said.
Forty-one years of Hernandez’s life went up in smoke. The single mother of two says she has insurance but is concerned about making ends meet since she won’t be able to work her delivery job for weeks.
“The money, can’t pay the rent, can’t pay the food for my kids. My heart is broken because all in that apartment, it was very hard to get,” Hernandez said.
While material possessions may be difficult to replace, Hernandez says she’s glad she and her kids, who weren’t harmed, were able to run out of their unit and get a second chance at life.
“I will be more sensitive with the other person. I will stop to watch the sun go down,” she said.
Hernandez says doctors haven’t told her when she’ll be released, but she says she has a long road to recovery.
Two other units were damaged in the fire.
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