Fire investigators are trying to determine what happened Thursday night when a woman was severely burned in a fire at a gas station in Riverview.
The incident occurred shortly after 10 p.m. at the Kangaroo gas station at 1005 Hixson Pike while a woman and her boyfriend were putting gas in their Jeep Cherokee.
A store cashier told firefighters that he saw fire break out at the pump next to the Jeep, so he hit the cut-off switch to the pump and called 911. The woman's clothes caught on fire, and she screamed for help. The clerk and another employee then grabbed a fire extinguisher and put the fire out.
Captain Anthony Moore with the Fire Investigation Division Moore identified the woman as Samantha Lawrence, 20. When Chattanooga firefighters arrived on the scene moments later, they got Ms. Lawrence to sit down so they could apply dressings to her burns. Captain Moore said she was suffering from 2nd- and 3rd-degree burns to approximately 30% of her body.
She was then handed over to paramedics with Hamilton County EMS and rushed to Erlanger Hospital. Hours later, Captain Moore said Ms. Lawrence was airlifted to the Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta, Ga.
Chattanooga police are assisting with the investigation.
Samantha Lawrence is listed in critical but stable condition at the Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta.