A woman who accidentally torched her garden shed with lighter fluid in a barbeque accident has shared images of the damage.
Mother-of-two Chloe Caudery was terrified when the blaze broke out at her home in Bellingdon, Buckinghamshire, on Thursday, April 21.
The 32-year-old was having trouble starting up her barbeque so used lighter fluid which she says ignited after flames ‘sucked back into the can’.
The cleaner quickly panicked, thinking that the burning liquid would explode in her hand so threw it away.
The flaming can hit Chloe’s shed before exploding and setting the entire wooden frame on fire.
The fire then spread across the garden, damaging fencing, a BBQ, a tumble dryer, freezer, toys, a pergola and parts of the house’s guttering.
Fire crews arrived just 12 minutes after and managed to extinguish the flames.
Chloe has issued a warning on social media about the dangers of lighter fluid while saying she has learned her lesson from the incident.
She shared images showing the aftermath of the fire including the completely scorched garden area.
Other images show family possessions completely destroyed by the flames.
Posting on Facebook on Friday, April 22, she said: ‘Please take care while using your barbecues this summer.
‘I’m usually alright, but yesterday was terrifying. I used barbecue lighter fluid to get it going as I didn’t have any stuff to hand like kindling.
‘The fluid went back into the bottle, I panicked and chucked it.
‘It hit the shed and bang and here is the devastation.
‘It was lucky I moved my car out of the way as things started to explode.’
The post received over 1,100 likes and hundreds of comments from shocked viewers.
One said: ‘Wow, I’m so glad to see you’re safe and the damage was localised to around the BBQ area and didn’t spread. I guess the life lesson here is never to squirt lighter fluid onto a lit BBQ.’
Another wrote: ‘How scary, I have always been afraid to use lighter fluid and it stinks so badly.
‘We use natural firelighters which I still panic about but they burn out by themselves. So glad everyone is ok.’
A third commented: ‘Oh my goodness, you are so lucky to all be ok. I’m never putting fluid on a lit BBQ again.’
Yet another person added: ‘Never squeeze fluid when lit for this very reason and always have the BBQ away from everything else, especially fences and sheds.
‘Glad you’re all safe and a horrible lesson to learn this way.’