Generator Explosion Injures Fort Worth Father

FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - Severe weather that rolled over the area earlier this week left thousands of North Texans without electricity. A father in Fort Worth attempted to restore power to his home by setting up a generator, but was hospitalized after that generator exploded.

The incident happened just before 8:00 p.m. Wednesday night. Firefighters rushed to the scene and found a metal storage building with the roof blown off. The man, Francisco Garcia, was found with first and second degree burns to his arms, legs, neck and abdomen.

According to neighbors Garcia had been filling an electric generator with gasoline, but there was an explosion. Fire department officials stated that gasoline vapors inside of the metal storage building ignited, triggering the explosion and badly burning the victim.

"It was a big boom, the whole neighborhood heard it," said Garcia's wife Angie Cruz, "One of the neighbors poured water on him, and steam started coming out of him.  He didn't know what to do, he was just, 'Help me! Help me!'"

Garcia was taken to Parkland Hospital in Dallas via air ambulance.  He's currently in the intensive care unit.  The hospital said his condition is stable.

"He's not looking too good right now, he's in pain," Cruz told CBS 11 outside the hospital.  "I try to be tough, because if he sees me crying he'll start crying."

Meanwhile, residents in the Fort Worth neighborhood struggled to get by without power for much of the day Thursday. Extension cords criss crossed lawns as families tried to share the little electricity that they could find before Oncor restored power around midday.

As of Thursday morning, Oncor was still dealing with just over 1,000 outages in the DFW area.