Woman Burns To Death While Trying To Set Ant Nest On Fire

A 27-year-old woman's attempt to burn an ant nest at her home in India has turned fatal.

The woman, a resident of the southern city of Chennai, suffered 90% burns and died in a hospital Sunday. On Saturday, S Sangeetha found an ant nest in her bedroom while cleaning the house. Following her mother's advice, Sangeetha decided to burn the nest with kerosene, the police said, the Times of India reported.

Sangeetha and her mother poured kerosene, a highly combustible liquid, on a paper, and the former lit the nest on fire. The ants then started to scramble away from the nest and scattered to different places.

Some of the ants climbed on Sangeetha’s legs. When she tried to shake them off, the kerosene spilled over her and the fire engulfed her. Sangeetha's mother tried desperately to put out the fire, but failed. She also sustained minor burns in the process.

Hearing Sangeetha’s cries, her father and the neighbors rushed to help her. They put wet blankets on her and after a lot of struggle were able to put out the fire, the Times of India reported. Sangeetha and her mother were immediately rushed to Kilpauk Medical College and Hospital on Saturday night. However, Sangeetha succumbed to the burns.

Local police said that the victim was wearing a polyester dress, which caught fire immediately and led to the severe burns. The police registered a case of accidental fire and her body was sent for autopsy.

Sangeetha, who used to work in an IT firm, was the sole breadwinner of the family. Her father Sathyamoorthy, was working as a driver, but he lost his job during the lockdown imposed in the city due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In another case of accidental burning, a Texas mother-of-three suffered severe burns after her hand sanitizer caught fire. The incident took place when the woman was trying to light a candle at home. The woman said the sanitizer bottle exploded after it came in contact with the candle flames. The incident took place in September.

"It can be something as small as lighting a candle. Because of the hand sanitizer, it just lit my whole ... everywhere I had hand sanitizer on my hand, it just lit my hand with fire. And it obviously went all over my face. And, in like a matter of five seconds, my whole body was just consumed in flames," she told local media at the time.