WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT Dwayne Bell, now 22, was left with third-degree burns after a massive fireball engulfed him during a workplace accident at a steel yard, when he was just 17
A teenage apprentice welder who was turned into a ‘human fireball’ during a devastating workplace accident has disclosed how he begged nurses to let him die.
Dwayne Bell was only 17 when he suffered appalling burns while working at a steel yard in Wigan. The trainee recalled how he was performing a standard rubbish-burning duty that turned into a nightmare when an enormous fireball engulfed him, searing his face, chin and hands.
He outlined how the explosion was so violent it melted part of his nose and ear, leaving him with third-degree burns. Now aged 22, Dwayne is speaking out to warn other young apprentices about the genuine hazards they can face on work sites, reports the Mirror.
He said: “I shouldn’t be here talking to you. I am lucky to be alive. It was so hot I feared I was going to be blinded – the heat was so intense.
“This was an accident waiting to happen… I’m trying to move on. But I’m living in a body that feels like a prison. This shouldn’t have happened. I wasn’t supervised and no trainee should ever be put in that position. They were the adults and they didn’t look after me.”
Dwayne, from Ashton-in-Makerfield in Wigan, had scarcely begun his career at Qualfab Steel Ltd before the incident happened in March 2021. He alleges he had been instructed to burn general waste, including paper, cardboard and wooden pallets, in a metal bin.
He said: “I was just a kid, doing what I was told. I was the youngest on site by 20 or 30 years.” In legal documents, Dwayne claimed he felt he hadn’t been given adequate training for lighting a fire to dispose of waste – something he described as “surprising.”
However, he did acknowledge receiving basic first aid and manual handling instruction. He alleged that despite his inexperience, he was often left unsupervised, but had “seen the older lads do it a hundred times”.
When a lighter failed to ignite some damp timber, Dwayne says he reached for a tin of paint thinner, asserting he’d seen others do the same before. He said: “I didn’t see the sparks that were already there as they were hidden by the wood.”
“The next thing I knew, the world just turned orange. The sound was like a jet engine. I was standing in the middle of a massive flame. As soon as I felt the whoosh of heat I shut my eyes as I didn’t want to go blind. It was like a bomb exploding in my face.”
He detailed how his head and hands caught fire and he rolled on the ground in pain while his colleagues put out the flames with a high vis jacket.
He said: “My colleagues came running over and tried to remove my gloves and overalls. As they did, my tracksuit bottoms underneath began to melt. But I opened my eyes and I was still alive and I was so thankful that I wasn’t blinded.”
Still shaken from the ordeal, Dwayne even asked his workmates to take pictures of his injuries before the emergency services arrived.
He said: “I had feathers on me from the jacket and my face was red with skin peeling off but I didn’t think it was that bad as I felt no pain. I never knew how bad it really was.”
He was airlifted to hospital and placed into an induced coma for a week after suffering burns to eight per cent of his body.
When he woke up a week later in intensive care in March 2021 with “tubes coming out of him,” he thought he had only been unconscious for one night and was in “indescribable pain.”
Dwayne said: “I looked at the nurses and I just begged them to let me die. I couldn’t see a future.
“I was wrapped in bandages, I couldn’t move, and the pain was the worst I had ever experienced. So I asked the nurses just to turn the machines off and let me go. But they wouldn’t. It was horrific.”
After three weeks in hospital, Dwayne returned home, where his mum had to help him with dressing and even cutting up his food. He shared: “My mum had to do everything, I was helpless. The pain was so intense and my skin would break easily. I couldn’t sleep on my side because of my burnt ears so I hardly got any sleep – it was a living nightmare.”
Over the next year, he underwent three skin grafts on his hands, with skin taken from his stomach and thighs. While his facial wounds have mostly healed, his hands remain severely scarred and may require further surgery.
He’s also had to give up football and golf as the friction causes painful blisters.
He further added: “My hands feel really numb in the morning like a dead leg and I get extreme pins and needles. I get very anxious in social settings still as I have bad scarring on my hands, chin and forehead. The experts don’t know if they will get any better.”
Dwayne subsequently enlisted workplace injury specialists Express Solicitors, and the case was settled out of court for a significant six-figure sum, without any admission of liability.
Senior Associate Neil Sagar, from Express Solicitors, commented: “Dwayne has made a miraculous recovery from his life changing injuries. But he still lives with the consequences of what happened everyday and his ongoing scars will affect his future career. Businesses need to make sure appropriate supervision and training is given to apprentices especially when working with dangerous disposal methods.”
Dwayne has since returned to welding with a different firm in the North. However, the heat and vibration from power tools can trigger painful blistering, limiting how long he can work. By sharing his experience, he hopes that others might be spared similar injuries.
He added: “I have to live with the consequences of what happened there everyday. Now I just want to try and live as normal a life as possible.”
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