Elderly man suffers horrific burns after opening a bag of chips

A pensioner who tried to open a bag of chips with a lighter ended up with severe burns on 75% of his body.
The elderly man, from Georgia in the United States, decided to use a lighter after struggling to open the bag in a more conventional way on Wednesday afternoon, said City of Dalton spokesperson Bruce Frazier.
Frazier told the New York Post: ‘The victim… was using a lighter to open bags of chips which he was unable to do with his hands.
‘While doing this, the man accidentally set himself on fire while sitting in a recliner.’
Maintenance workers tackled the flames using a water hose until firefighters arrived, the Post reports.
The victim, who hasn’t been named, was taken to Erlanger Baroness Hospital across the state border in Chattanooga, Tennessee, with third degree burns on about 75% of his body.
He was then transferred to a specialist burns unit for more care, according to Channel 2 Action News.
It’s not clear if the chips themselves sparked the fire, or if the blaze erupted from something else, the reports say.
Chips are very flammable because of their starchy, oily makeup. According to this Vice report from 2016, a pair of teenagers in Canada caused millions of dollars in damage after setting a single bag of potato chips alight.
The teens entered a Longo’s Supermarket in Vaughan, Ontario, and ignited a packet, before putting it back on the shelf and running away.
A witness told Global News that the fire expanded rapidly in a matter of seconds, causing well over C$2million (NZ$2.4m) to the store.