BEREA, Ky. (LEX 18) — Investigators are trying to figure out how something other than pure kerosene ended up in a family's kerosene heater Friday morning. The family's Berea home was destroyed after a fire. The mayor said firefighters suspect the kerosene tank at the fueling center where the family filled up appears not to be pure kerosene.
Adam Holt never imagined how fast his family's life could change.
"It's a little hard. You go from getting up, getting ready for work and then you're homeless," he said.
His family's home in Berea burned this morning. Holt said it happened in a flash.
"My father-in-law got up this morning to refill the kerosene heater and as soon as he hit the pump to add fuel to it, it blew up in his face. Gave him first and second-degree burns to his head, hands, and feet," Holt said.
The family lost a dog and cat in the fire. Now, investigators are looking into the gas station where they say they got the kerosene. Holt said the kerosene they bought Thursday was dark yellow.
Berea Mayor Bruce Fraley said the city's fire investigators examined the family's fuel can.
"When our folks examined it, it did not appear to be kerosene. We also went to the fueling center where the kerosene was purchased and took a sample from that and it appeared not to be pure kerosene," Fraley said.
According to the Berea Fire Department, that kerosene pump was at the 76 gas station at 865 KY-1016, formerly known as the 1016 Shell.
"We're actually sending a sample of fuel that was taken from that kerosene pump to be, for analysis to determine exactly what the contents of that tank are," Fraley said.
Fraley said the station's gasoline pumps appeared to be fine. He said the city is working with the state fire marshal's office to investigate what happened.
"That pump has been shut down. The business owner and supplier have made arrangements to shut that down. We actually had a firefighter, our assistant chief, for most of the day on site at that fueling station just to make sure that nobody bought any more kerosene there," he said.
"Our fire department is working with the state fire marshal's office to go through all the necessary steps to make sure that that tank, number one, that the fuel's inspected, that the kerosene's inspected to determine what's in it, and that if it is tainted, if there's something that's not kerosene in it, that that tank is properly drained and refilled the proper way before any additional kerosene is sold out of that particular pump," he added.
The city shared a picture, showing that kerosene should be clear, not yellow. The mayor said anyone who got kerosene from that pump should be careful.
"If someone purchased kerosene from this particular fueling center, my advice would be to err on the side of caution and not to use that kerosene, certainly not to put it in a kerosene heater or around anything flammable in case there's something that is more volatile than kerosene in it, which we suspect that there is," Fraley said.
A GoFundMe pagefor the family has raised more than $2,000 as they work to figure out what comes next.
